Possible Rezoning Presented at BOE Meeting

Madison Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Richard Noonan presented a slideshow, with the help of the principals at each elementary school, depicting a possible rezoning plan at the most recent Board of Education meeting.

The area's proposed for rezoning were on Ashland Road and Spring Garden Drive for children that would move from Central Avenue School to Kings Road School, and an area above Madison Avenue and below the train tracks stretching from Danforth Road to the meeting of Chester and Elm Streets for children moving from Central Avenue School to Torey J. Sabatini School.

However, there was a second proposed option for the Central/Torey rezone area. That was to send students in the area from Danforth Road to Fairwood Road in the rezoning area in Plan "A" to Torey J. Sabatini, and keep the students in the area east of that at Central Avenue School.

If either proposal were to be approved, parents would have the option to opt out of the rezoning if their children are already in the school system. If it's the family's first child in the system, he or she would be required to adhere to the new guidelines.

However, the numbers presented in the proposal were based on all of the parents opting for the rezoning.

Noonan assured the public that nothing was officially happening regarding any possible rezoning at the meeting.

"I want to make this very, very clear: we're trying to identify with rezoning how many sections we would need and what kind of relief that would provide at Central  and what kind of balance that would create across the three schools," Noonan said. "What we are not doing here tonight is announcing exactly how many sections we're going to have at every school for next year. We need this to be clear. This is a planning exercise to find out with rezoning what kind of help we can gain here in balancing the schools out with this approach. That's the only purpose this serves."

The possibility of overcrowding at Central Avenue School has been the topic of conversation at the past two board meetings. Some parents believe the greater student numbers in the first grade sections already shows the school has outgrown its classrooms, which they expressed at the Feb. 9 meeting.

Noonan's presentation was based on both current and, mainly, projected numbers by demographers' studies. The district had two demographers conduct studies, but are putting more stock in Sara Weisman's projections because her previous work for the district has proved to be accurate.

The study showed the current patterns of student growth in the borough as a whole, and in each area, should continue at about the same rate it has in previous years.

To see what that meant, Noonan had each of the principals of the three schools–Torey J. Sabatini, Kings Road and Central Avenue–look at how many students per grade and section (with current size guidelines) each school would have over the next four school years without any redistricting. Then Noonan had them break it down in the same way with the proposed rezoning.

In the analysis, if there was no redistricting, Central Avenue School would need 23 classrooms in each of the next five school years, two more than what it is using now.

"I don't have 23 classrooms right now," Central Avenue School Principal Philip Kennedy said, "unless, like Dr. Noonan said, we take a Spanish room and combine a resource room. We can do that, but that would mean adding two more home rooms."

If rezoning plan "A" (the entire area in the Central/Torey proposal) is implemented, Central would only need 20 classrooms next year based on the demographic study. Plan "B" would increase that need to 21, but that is still below the original 23.

In either scenario, Torey J. Sabatini would need 15 rooms, which everyone who spoke said the space was available, in the coming years. Also, the school would need 15 classrooms by the 2011-12 school year even without rezoning.

Kings Road School would increase its needed classrooms from hovering around 12, to 14 with rezoning. Those classrooms would contain fewer students in each section, and everyone who spoke at the meeting again said the space was available for those two extra classrooms.

Kennedy, Kings Road Principal Kathleen Koop, and Torey J. Sabatini Principal Michael Post all said they strongly supported the full rezoning proposal.

Editor's note–The slides Dr. Richard Noonan and the three elementary school principals presented are attached to this story in the photo gallery.