School Redistricting Plan Gets First Look

Mayor Grady will be holding a Narberth Town Hall meeting to discuss Lower Merion School District's Proposed Redistricting Plan.

"a big thanks to our Lower Merion School Board for their dedication and hard work in the present redistricting process.  They all deserve a good round of applause for their efforts in making our School District the very best for our children.  Now with the 1st Draft of the Proposed Redistricting Plan on the table, I will be holding a Narberth Town Hall Meeting on Tuesday, September 16, 2008 at 7:30 PM to hear your thoughts, opinions and concerns to bring to the School Board’s attention"

The Main Line Times reports that the changes will be limited to students graduating into middle school (5th to 6th grade) and high school (8th to 9th grade).

"Under the plan, the biggest change will involve students attending Penn Wynne Elementary School. Students who live south of Lancaster Avenue and east of East Wynnewood Road and attend Penn Wynne Elementary School will move on to Welsh Valley Middle School instead of Bala Cynwyd Middle School. They would then feed into Harriton High School once they've entered the ninth grade.                                        

In order to keep the middle school populations about the same, some students in portions of Penn Valley who would now go to Welsh Valley Middle School would instead go to Bala Cynwyd Middle School."

UPDATED: The press release can be viewed here.  The proposal in Powerpoint format is here.  The maps are here.  In its current form, all Narberth students would matriculate to Lower Merion HS and high school choice would be eliminated.  If you know of other details that affect Narberth, please post them in the comments section.  Thank you!

Comments

[Kris Prendergast]

Your information is not correct. Specific changes to Narberth Boro students attending Belmont Hills have been outlined, including eliminating choice at the high school level. I urge anyone interested in the details of the plan to go to lmsd.org and read the links under "Redistricting"

[Jody Piltz-Seymour]

Thank you to all who joined the Narberth community discussion about LMSD redistricting. I sent the following proposal to the school board last week. If you agree with the content, please feel free to use any portion when writing your own comment, or simply resend the proposal including your comments supporting it. The table at the end of the proposal did not align properly in the blog, but I can send it via email to anyone who is interested.

Comments to the LMSD should be sent to redistricting@lmsd.org

A Proposal to Maintain the ‘Choice Zone’ for High School

I commend the LMSD school board for the great effort taken to promote school continuity for the high school students. The staggered redistricting plan supports school connectedness shown to be vital in the development of resilient teens. I understand that there are many factors at play to try to balance the demographics of the school populations at the two high schools. Unfortunately, this balance should not be achieved on the shoulders of a small population of middle schoolers by separating them from the majority of their middle school peers and sending them to a different high school.

Clearly the LMSD understands that it is desirable to keep student school communities intact as much as possible. That is why Gladwynne, Merion, Cynwyd and Penn Wynne elementary communities remain intact from entry into the school system to high school graduation. Only a small subset of students at Belmont Hills and Penn Valley Elementary Schools are asked to separate from their long-term peers at the delicate teen years when they transition to high school.

The Narberth community struggles to maintain a position in the LMSD. The last redistricting process split our community, sending South Narberth to Merion Elementary and on to Bala Cynwyd Middle School, while North Narberth was bussed to Belmont Hills Elementary and Welsh Valley Middle School. The situation remains the same for Narberth in the new plan. The North and South Narberth student communities are not joined again until 9th grade, when they are zoned together for LMHS.

During the years they are separated from their geographic community throughout elementary and middle school, many North Narberth students develop a strong sense of community at their schools and develop a secure school based peer community.

For the last decade, the LMSD has recognized that for many of these North Narberth students, this school community has taken on greater importance than their geographic community. LMSD created a ‘choice zone’, so that these students might be permitted to continue with their school/peer community and attend Harriton High School if they desired. This choice zone empowered the students to feel they had a say in whether or not to be separated from their peers. Up to 100 graduating Welsh Valley students each year are eligible to choose their high school upon graduation. Fewer than 30 students per year (24 in the current year) in the choice zone take advantage of this ability by choosing to go to Harriton; the vast majority of these students proceed on to Lower Merion where they are zoned.

For many students, it appears that the geographic connection and proximity determines their high school choice. But for some students, maintaining the connection to their school peer community is the most important factor, choosing to maintain those elementary and middle school ties into high school. It seems most humane to these emerging teens to feel a sense of control in the decision of where and with whom they spend their high school years. Clearly the District recognizes the importance of maintaining and continuing school and peer relationships by enabling all current high schoolers to remain in their current school until graduation. Middle schoolers should also be permitted to maintain these critical social relationships by continuing the current choice program for eligible Welsh Valley students.

The district can feel confident that the vast majority of students in the choice area will choose their zoned school. The demographic data for the district and ten years of history support that. With the current staggered redistricting plan, Harriton will have a smaller population over the next few years until redistricting is complete and should easily be able to accommodate approximately 30 additional students from the choice zone with ease. After redistricting is complete, the high school population will be at an all time low, with fewer than 1100 high school students at each school. Since each high school was built to accommodate 1250 students, there will be sufficient cushion to allow a small influx of roughly 30 students from the choice area. (Table)

Maintaining the ‘choice zone’ has minimal impact on the school district, while the benefits of empowering our young adults at such a delicate developmental milestone are priceless. I strongly urge the LMSD to maintain the choice zone as it proceeds with the redistricting plan.

Sincerely,
Jody Piltz-Seymour, MD

Anticipated High School Population During and After Staggered Redistricting

Grades redistricted Projected size of LMHS class* Projected size of Harriton HS class Projected total High school population
2007-8 1,559 (actual) 832 (actual) 2,391 (actual)
2008-9 1,483 799 2,282
New Harriton opens 2009-10 9th grade 1,377 871 2,248
New LM opens 2010-11 9th and 10th 1,237 917 2,154
2011-12 9th, 10th, 11th 1,122 967 2,089
All years redistricted
2012-13 Redistricting Complete 1,065 1,065 2,129
2013-14
1,039 1,039 2,078
2014-15 1,034 1,034 2,068

* class size data assumes 65% of grandfathered students attend LMHS, 35% of grandfathered students attend Harrition, and redistricted students split evenly between the two schools.