Redistricting committee's meeting likely to spawn several new options

If you like having options, Henrico's countywide redistricting effort is the gift that keeps giving.

The 67-member redistricting committee tasked with recommending new boundaries for county schools and the consulting firm leading its efforts met last night for three hours at Henrico High School and, through work in four small groups, created the rough drafts of what will become at least four more maps of possible elementary, middle school and high school zones. Those options will join 10 others (four for high schools and three each for elementary and middle schools) that the committee previously has released.

Last night’s meeting was designed as a chance for the full redistricting committee to come together as one group for the first time since its formation, but attendance was lackluster; at least one-third of committee members were absent. The meeting was a late addition to the regular schedules of group members, who until this point had been meeting separately once a month since September in subcommittees — one for elementary schools and one for secondary schools.

Last night, committee members spent about 90 minutes in their small groups working to revise and update rough drafts of changes that each subcommittee had made to various maps during separate subcommittee meetings the previous two nights. Many of the revisions involved tweaking proposed boundaries to eliminate feeder pattern issues by keeping neighborhoods and school populations together instead of sending small groups off to different schools. Other changes were designed to implement more natural boundary lines – major roads, for example – and limit the distance students would need to travel to get to school.

Members from each of the four small groups then took turns presenting their changes publicly to the rest of the committee and the two dozen or so onlookers who attended. By evening’s end, consultant Matt Cropper, whose Cropper GIS firm is leading the redistricting process, said his team would take the recommendations and changes from the meeting and likely create four new maps. They’re expected to be released as soon as next week.

Committee tweaks maps
At least three of the small groups last night seemed to focus some of their efforts on making adjustments to middle school Option C. Two did so in conjunction with high school Option D, tweaking elements of each to create plans that they said reduced feeder pattern splits, created better natural boundaries for a number of schools and fixed some illogical divisions.

“We haven’t made a lot of changes to some of our other hot spots,” one committee member said last night, while studying the map and then asking a fellow member “Where were they again?”

Another voice chimed in, to laughter: “The whole West End.”

Among some specific concerns committee members attempted to address:

• what to do with West Broad Village (consensus among committee members last night seemed to suggest zoning it for Pocahontas Middle and Godwin High);

• whether to extend the boundaries of Pocahontas Middle School all the way to Gaskins Road to pull in students currently zoned for Quioccasin Middle (one group suggested that doing so would help fill the school, which would be only at 74% capacity otherwise in one option);

• whether to adjust the feeder pattern of Longan Elementary so that all students would go to Huungary Creek Middle (consensus seemed to support that idea);

• whether to send all of Carver Elementary School to Quioccasin Middle (one group suggested that approach);

• whether to send a group of about 32 Springfield Park Elementary students to Echo Lake Elementary instead (one group suggested no);

• where to send students in the Brook Road/Wilkinson Road/Moss Side Avenue region in Northern Henrico (a split that would send one portion to Chamberlayne Elementary and another portion to Laburnum Elementary is among the options being considered, though committee members were leery of sending students across major roads to attend school);

• where to send Harvie Elementary School students (one group suggested that the entire school feed to Fairfield Middle, while another would send all of it to Wilder Middle);

• what to do with a small group of Donahoe Elementary School students east of I-295 that the elementary school committee this week proposed moving to Seven Pines Elementary instead (one group last night suggested the move wouldn’t make sense);

• whether to move a region of students along the eastern edge of Eastern Henrico County from Elko to Rolfe Middle – creating a much longer commute in the process (a bad idea, according to one group last night).

Will process be delayed?
The School Board is scheduled to vote in late May to adopt new boundaries that would take effect in time for the 2021-22 school year, when new versions of Tucker and Highland Springs high schools and a twice-as-large version of Holladay Elementary School will open. Those three projects – along with the desire of school system officials to efficiently use all available space, plan for future growth and reduce the concentration of poverty at schools wherever possible – prompted the redistricting effort.

But school system officials have said that the process could be delayed or boundaries implemented during multiple years instead of all at once. A number of citizens have urged a delay to allow the board’s three new members – Kristi Kinsella (Brookland District), Marcie Shea (Tuckahoe) and Alicia Atkins (Varina) – sufficient time to consider the topic before voting on a plan. Shea told the Citizen last night that she would need more information before she could decide whether a delay would make sense; Kinsella said she would defer to the board's chair (who is likely to be Fairfield District member Roscoe Cooper).

A delay also would allow proper time, some have said, for the committee to consider the impact of a new elementary school for the River Mill community near Virginia Center and the expansion of Hungary Creek Middle School – two projects that were announced unexpectedly by the School Board in October, after the committee already had prepared its first two sets of boundary options. Both projects are targeted for completion in time for the 2022-23 school year.

A high school tug-of-war During last night's meeting, Shea summarized to the Citizen the feedback she's received from residents of her district so far thusly: "No one wants to move, but someone has to."

Indeed, the committee has faced significant backlash from citizens (primarily in the West End) who are resistant to any boundary changes affecting their children.

The first two sets of boundary options published last fall drew the anger of the Raintree community and adjacent neighborhoods in the Gayton Road corridor that objected to plans that would move them from the Godwin High School zone, which is within walking distance for many homes there.

But the next two sets of high school boundary proposals addressed those complaints, keeping them at Godwin.

The next key decision looming for committee members, and ultimately for the new-look School Board, is how to handle what appears to be a high school tug-of-war between the Crestview Elementary School zone and the Pemberton Road corridor – both of which currently feed to Freeman High and both of which want to remain there, though one appears to be destined to move to Tucker High.

Although the new version of Tucker will hold only 32 more students than the current version, changes to other West End high school zones will necessitate boundary shifts that impact Tucker and Freeman.

A group of Crestview residents formed the Crestview Area Coalition and submitted an online petition to school officials signed by 319 area residents urging support for high school Option C, which would keep the area zoned for Freeman but send Pemberton Road neighborhoods to Tucker.

Pemberton Road residents, on the other hand, have called and written school officials in support of Option D, which would keep them at Freeman – to which they were moved from Godwin 10 years ago – and move Crestview's zone to Tucker instead.

Geographically, most of the Pemberton corridor is closer to Tucker than the Crestview zone is. Both communities have argued that moving their students to Tucker would require them to travel on West Broad Street or I-64 – potentially making daily trips more dangerous for teen drivers.

One committee member told other members and Cropper last night that the committee needed to determine how to rank priorities.

Her group, she said, struggled with the question of whether to prioritize reducing poverty levels at a school or keeping natural boundaries for a school.

“We as a group have to decide which is more important,” she said.

The School Board will receive an update on the redistricting process during its Jan. 16 meeting. The elementary school subcommittee is scheduled to meet Feb. 4, while the secondary school subcommittee will meet the next day.