WLCS board will make redistricting choice this month

An article by Angela Niemi    No Comments

With Maple and Twin Beach elementary schools in the Walled Lake Consolidated School District set to shutter their doors before the new school year, Superintendent Ken Gutman formally concurred on Thursday, Feb. 2, with a redistricting plan recommended from a series of options by the district’s Middle School Subcommittee.

Of the three plans under consideration, Gutman and the subcommittee both recommended moving forward with Plan B-C, and the school board is scheduled to make a decision on the redistricting effort later this month.

“My recommendation is that you adopt Plan B-C, allowing transfer (students) and Schools of Choice students to remain in their current school, as it is the most thorough, complete and comprehensive plan of the three,” Gutman told the school board last week. “Please understand that I do not mean to diminish the work of the other committees. They were diligent and focused and I commend them for their work. Plan B-C, though, directly addresses transfer students and Schools of Choice students, and it does not reset them to home schools.”

Last month, the Middle School Subcommittee endorsed Plan B-C because of the equitable distribution of students over the next several years.

Currently, the district also has 238 transfer students, those students who live in the attendance area of one elementary school but were granted permission to attend another one.

The district also plays host to 118 Schools of Choice students, those who live outside of the school district.

“Adopting Plan B-C also pays special attention to our students from Maple Elementary and Twin Beach Elementary schools,” Gutman said. “Already experiencing the closure of their schools, B-C sends them to only three different schools while Twin Beach students would go to two different schools, as is the case in all three plans. Plan B-C expressed a compelling rationale to move as few students as possible (which it does) and when it moves them it does so in large groups rather than isolating individuals.”

The closure of Maple and Twin Beach effectively means that 700 students will need to attend one of the 12 remaining elementary schools in the district.

A couple weeks ago, the Board of Education was presented with the three recommendation plans to redistrict students after months of thought and preparation by various advisory subcommittees.

Various factors were taken into consideration including enrollment data; transportation considerations; facility configurations; budgetary implications; feeder patterns; continuity of neighborhoods and municipalities; and phasing-in of boundaries.

The main goal of the redistricting plans was to establish a balance at each of the remaining elementary schools.

The current plan presentations — Plan A, Plan B-C, and Plan D — can be found at www.wlcsd.org. The presentations show which students by zone are affected and how under each plan.

For more information on the redistricting process, visit www.wlcsd.org or e-mail redistricting@wlcsd.org.