By Amanda Estes

Staff Writer

    Avoid targeting certain neighborhoods and maintain
diversity and equality in South Portland’s schools. That was just part
of the message parents sent to South Portland school administrators
last week during a public forum about the proposed “redistricting”
process for the city’s five elementary schools and two middle schools.

    “It’s a guarantee that no situation is going to be
good,” said Skillin Elementary School PTA Vice President and parent
Kristine Neff-Jendrasko.

    The “redistricting” process is needed to balance
enrollments, create demographic equity in all five elementary schools
and return English Language Learner (ELL) students to their
neighborhood schools, Superintendent Suzanne Godin said. ELL students
currently attend and receive instructional support through the English
as a Second Language (ESL) programs at Brown Elementary School, Mahoney
Middle School and the high school.

Godin expects to present a plan to the school board during one of the
upcoming budget hearings scheduled for 6:30 p.m. on Feb. 27, 28, March
3 and 4 at Memorial Middle School. Godin said she will notify the
public of when she intends to bring the plan forward. The school board
will vote on the plan, either accepting it as presented or asking
administrators to “go back to the drawing board,” Godin said.

    Enrollment trends, tracked by the consulting firm
Planning Decisions, show the city’s elementary populations are
increasing while middle school enrollments are on the decline, Godin
said. Elementary enrollments are expected to reach 1,429 students next
year, an increase of 107 students from the 2004-05 enrollment figures.
Mahoney and Memorial Middle School enrollments are predicted to
decrease to 677 students next year, compared to 707 students in the
2004-05 school year.

    The free/reduced lunch program indicates there are
also socioeconomic disparities within the city’s schools. City wide,
the average of students receiving free/reduced lunch is 29.7 percent.
At Dyer Elementary School, 15 percent of the student body receives the
subsidy and Kaler Elementary School is at the opposite end with 47
percent, Godin said.

    The total ELL population has grown from 56 students
five years ago to the 144 students currently enrolled, Godin said. Out
of the 62 students currently enrolled at Brown, only four of those
students should be attending the school according to the district’s
commitment to educate students in their neighborhood schools, she said.


Last week, Godin and members of the Redistricting Advisory Committee
presented enrollment trends data and a list of priorities that along
with parent input will help shape Godin’s plan. Parents and community
members then split into four groups and aired their suggestions and
concerns to school officials, who were posted at four easels set up in
the community center’s senior wing.

    School board chairman Richard Carter said the
advisory committee largely agreed on three top priorities: give
families the option for their fourth or seventh grader to remain at
their current school to avoid three schools in three years, leave the
waiver process in place for families with extenuating circumstances and
refrain from implementing the “redistricting” plan in phases. The
exception may be the ESL program, which may make more sense to be
implemented in phases, Godin said.

 Ideas met with mixed reviews included balancing the ESL program,
balancing socioeconomic factors in the city, that students who can walk
to one school shouldn’t be bused to another school, and students who
attend the same elementary school should attend the same middle school.


    “Does the city own any land to build another
school?” asked Peter Jendrasko, while participating in one of the group
discussions.

    Godin said the department examined the need for
another school when it closed Mary F. Marsh Elementary School, but the
number of students didn’t justify the need.

    “The reality is we’ve got space in our buildings we’re not using,” she said.

Parents also questioned where the representation was for ELL students and their parents.

    “This seems like a lot of bouncing around for ELL students,” Neff-Jendrasko said. “Has anyone asked them?”

    Mahoney Principal Kathy Germani said she has a group
of ELL students who aren’t able to participate in after-school
activities because they don’t have transportation.

    “There are so many things those kids aren’t able to
do because we’re not their neighborhood school,” Germani said.  

Parents also said with fuel prices on the rise, they support students
walking to school rather than riding the bus, when possible.  

    “I think it’s just as important as the class size and ELL,” said Skillin parent Stephenie Cliff.

At the elementary school level, students are not bused to school if
they live within a one-mile proximity unless there is a hazard involved
such as crossing busy streets or a sex offender living nearby, Godin
said.

    Parents also said they hope school officials will avoid dividing or targeting neighborhoods.

“I would rather not draw the lines on certain neighborhoods or on
certain streets by this is a wealthy street, this is a poor street,”
said former school board member Steve Onos.

    Cliff added, “We want to make sure we’re creating diversity as opposed to not giving it an opportunity.”

School board member Ralph Baxter, Jr. proposed transforming Mahoney and
Memorial into one school for fifth and sixth graders and another school
for seventh and eighth graders. The idea was met with enthusiasm from
parents and at least one school official.

“I would love to have fifth graders in my middle school,” Germani said. “That would be a piece of cake.”