Revised Redistricting Has All Narberth Students Attending Harriton HS

Last night the Lower Merion School Board issued a revised redistricting proposal.  After receiving considerable protest from the Penn Wynne community, those students will no longer be bussed across the township to attend Harriton High School.  In light of this change the School Board proposes that, among other modifications to the plan, all Narberth students attend Harriton HS. (added note: A small portion of Narberth students in the 'Walking Zone' to Lower Merion High School will retain school choice)

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In the previous proposal, Narberth's concerns focused on continued availability of high school choice, class continuity between elementary, middle, and high school, and the North/South divide.  While important to many parents, these issues were fairly minor.  Under the plan now presented, all Narberth students will be bussed directly past Lower Merion High School out to Harriton HS. 

Lower Merion High School is exactly 1 mile (4 minutes) from downtown Narberth.  This proximity means less bussing for the school district, additional flexibility for students and parents, and it reinforces Narberth's walking culture.  By contrast, Harriton High School is 3.7 miles (15-20 minutes) away.  Routes to the school are neither walkable or safely bikeable.  The children of our walking community will need to be bussed and driven everywhere.  Our teens will be driving more miles at exactly the point in their lives when they should be driving the least.

Whether or not you have school-age children, this proposal affects you.  Narberth's property values are driven by the influx of young families.  Young families are attracted not only by our school's test scores, but also their physical location and convenience.

If there are Narberth citizens who think this proposal benefits Narberth, please post your comments.  The positive aspects of this are hard for me to find.

- Your Narblog Editor

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Comments and feedback should be sent to redistricting@lmsd.org no later than November 6th to be included in the next round of decision making.  The district's overall schedule is as follows:

Public Comment Meeting  - October 23, 2008 8PM
Public Comment Period Ends - November 6th

Plan Revisions - November 17th
Public Comment Meeting - November 19th
Public Comment Period Ends - November 27th

Final Plan Completed - December 5th
Board Adopts Plan - December 15th
Transition Process Begins - December 16th

If have feelings or opinions about this process, the time to act is now.  Please email Mayor Tom Grady (grady@tfgrady.com) with your thoughts.  Also, please carbon copy him on any comments you might send to Lower Merion School District.

Comments

[cls]

I agree with the editorial. Some people will say, "well, why shouldn't Narberth kids have to take long bus rides, if other kids do?" I think the answer is that Narberth residents made a conscious choice to live in a place with sidewalks and with a walking/biking culture. Residents of most other parts of Lower Merion made a conscious choice to live in an area with no sidewalks, where their kids have to be driven everywhere, anyway. In exchange for that choice, they got other things (bigger lot sizes, for example).
I'm not sure how to argue that this is relevant to education (which is what the school board will want to hear), except to say that kids and families will be more stressed if they are forced into a routine (long drives) that is the OPPOSITE of what their familes value.

[Julia Goldstein]

I agree entirely with CLS' post.

To possibly address CLS' concern about making this point relevant to the school board, I think we can validly point to the first of the four "Key Findings on Community Values" generated and theoretically considered by the board, itself: "Social networks are at the heart of where people live, and those networks expand as people grow older". I believe that this October plan, slices and dices a walking neighborhood, certainly a "social network", and cuts it off from its neighbors on 3 sides. How does that possibly fit with the first key finding?