Rezoning committee decides to redraw boundaries

Significant changes have been made to the preliminary proposal for the new boundaries of the elementary schools in the Conway School District.

The district's rezoning committee met Thursday morning, and Dr. Greg Murry, superintendent, said the group has decided to redraw the proposed boundaries for the elementary schools to allow neighborhoods to be pooled into the new school to be built on Padgett Road; however, the new plan doesn't affect as many areas as the first proposal did.

"We made the decision that we would return back to the zones that we're currently under in assigning students to elementary schools with the exception of pooling some of the students to the Padgett school," Murry said after Thursday's meeting. "The majority are now coming from Jim Stone Elementary School and some are coming from Julia Lee Moore, Ida Burns and Marguerite Vann, primarily coming from the northern boundaries of these schools."

Although a map of the new proposed plan has not been drawn yet, Murry said once the map is finished, which will take at least a week, parents will be invited to view it at the affected schools.

In the previous proposal, these school zones were affected, along with the zones for Ellen Smith and Sallie Cone elementary schools. One reason for the shift in plans came from discussions held at the six elementary schools that would have originally had their boundaries changed.

"Carroll Bishop (assistant superintendent) went to the PTO meetings, presented the proposed map, heard comments and told the parents we certainly would be listening to those comments," Murry said.

Not only did this change come from a reaction to the parents' and patrons' comments, but a change the district has seen over the past few months, according to Murry.

Murry said the district has been studying the zoning map over the past two years for the purpose of redrawing boundaries to allow a new school to be built and also to allow room for growth in existing schools.

"Based on our financial situation, we have made the decision to increase the number of students in a class, which decreases the number of teachers we need," Murry said. "That also frees up some classrooms in those buildings. And we're getting to the point of freeing up those classrooms through what we're doing right now, so it's not much of an issue anymore."

The rezoning committee that met Thursday morning was comprised of two parents, several principals, central office administration and Carolyn Lewis, member of the Conway School District's Board of Education. There was no public input at this meeting as it was a committee meeting, not a public meeting, according to Murry.

The next step in district rezoning will take place at 7 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 15, at the James H. Clark Auditorium on the west campus of Conway High School. Parents and other members of the community will be invited to a public hearing to make comments after viewing the proposed map. Murry said he doesn't expect the proposal created at the rezoning committee meeting to change before that hearing.

After the public hearing, the final recommendation will go before the school board during its regular December meeting.