Updated 5:30 p.m. Monday
Looney asks for vote Nov. 11 at called meeting
By SUSAN LEATHERS
Brentwood Home Page
If passed, the latest – and final, according to Superintendent Dr. Mike Looney – district wide Williamson County Schools rezoning plan would move a total of 3,108 students from their current school zone.

Over the course of almost three hours, Looney made his presentation and then answered questions posed by members of the Williamson County Board of Education.

Dr. Mike Looney explains capacity figures to Williamson County school board members Monday night. BHP Photo.

Here is a outline of the latest proposal, which remained based on the board’s charge: Pass a rezoning plan that would maximize existing schools’ capacity; minimize the need to split schools into different feeder patterns, and consider proximity.

The new plan is based on school capacity figures determined by multiplying the number of teacher stations per school by 21.7 for high schools, 19.8 for middle schools and 20.49 for elementary. The numbers represent pupil to teacher ratios.

New zoning lines
The latest plan establishes one-mile ‘rezoning-free zones” around each high and middle school and half-mile zones around each elementary school so families “can rest assured they will not be rezoned moving forward,” Looney said.

All of the areas rezoned from Ravenwood to Centennial in the earlier proposals remain rezoned. An addition is the Meade at Avalon, which shifts an additional 40 high school students to CHS.

The Montclair, Carriage Hills and Nashville Golf Club developments remain zoned to RHS as they are within its one-mile radius.

Courtside, Arlington Heights, Shadow Creek at Southern Woods, Southern Woods, Stone Creek Park and Walnut Ridge developments north of Concord Road move from RHS to the BHS zone. They will have a clean feeder from Edmondson to Brentwood Middle to Brentwood High.

This same area would be rezoned from Sunset Elementary to Edmondson and from Sunset Middle to BMS.

Woodland Middle becomes a split feeder to Ravenwood and Centennial. The new Breezeway Elementary School’s students will feed into both Woodland and Page middle schools, then Centennial and Page high respectively.

Though part of the one-mile radius around Crockett Elementary School is zoned for Lipscomb, Looney explained that the area is part of a larger neighborhood zoned for Lipscomb and that its only exit path is outside of the Crockett radius.
Looney said he did not intend to alter, revise or tweak this particular proposal and asked the school board to call a special meeting Thursday, Nov. 11, before its regularly scheduled work session to vote on the plan. A public information meeting is scheduled for Nov. 4 at Franklin High School from 5 to 7 p.m.

Request for funding resolutions

Looney also asked the board to move forward with two resolutions to be presented to the Williamson County Commission, which funds the district.

The first resolution requests funding for a new northeast Williamson County high school. “It is urgent that we buy property now,” Looney said, noting that land prices are at a “good level” right now. Because it takes several years to build a high school, he said “it is urgent that we buy property now.”

The proposed rezoning plan is designed to hold the district for five years. A new high school, likely to be located in or near Nolensville, would relieve the continued overcrowding at Ravenwood.

The second resolution asks the county to fund a six-classroom addition at Hillsboro School near Leiper's Fork. Pearre Creek Elementary School, which opened in the Westhaven development in west Franklin this year, will feed into Hillsboro under the new plan.

Out of the box solutions

Looney outlined several “next steps” to make the rezoning more palatable, based on feedback from public input sessions and meetings with individual school board members, and to stabilize enrollment at the district’s high schools.

The ideas included express bus service from any area that’s located 10 or more miles from its zoned school. A potential route, he said, would run from Westhaven to Independence High. An express bus could make the approximately 10.5-mile one-way trip in 20 to 25 minutes without stops in between, he said.

A “3 and Me” program would allow a rezoned high school student to bring up to three of his or her friends that remain in the original zone to transfer as well.

A second proposal is the “5-4-3 Guarantee” designed to eliminate students being rezoned an inordinate number of times. The plan would allow students at the three school levels to stay at their current schools if they have previously been rezoned a minimum number of times, based on current grade.

The number of students who would qualify for the 5-4-3 program would be relatively small, Looney said. An area that could benefit from the program would be the 5^th district, which includes several east Brentwood subdivisions and is represented by Gary Anderson. The area has experienced multiple previous rezoning, and is included in this most recent round.

Any student wanting to utilize one of these programs would have to go through the same out of zone approval process that now exists.

Looney was short on details and acknowledged both plans need to be fleshed out and vetted.

To ensure that students attend their zoned school, Looney asked the board to revisit the district’s current grandfathering policy which allows siblings to follow an older sibling allowed to finish their education at his or her original school (rising fifth graders, rising eighth graders and rising junior and seniors are eligible to grandfather).

 “It does create a problem,” Looney said of multi-generational grandfathering. He said approximately 1500 WCS students now attend a school outside their zone under the current grandfather clause.

He also wants the district to better define what constitutes a unique program to reduce the number of students allowed to transfer to a school that offers a program of instruction unavailable at their zoned school.

Summing it all up

In conclusion, Looney said, “No matter how you slice the capacity pie in our school district, we don’t have enough schools,” he said. With the proposed plan, the district can hang on “three to four years if we’re lucky,” five in some cases. “But if we wait until we’re at a critical point again … then this problem grows worse.”

He asked the board to support the two resolutions “so that in three to four years time that school can be online,” he said of the new northeast high school. At Hillsboro School, a K-8 facility, six classrooms could be built by the start of the 2011-12 school year if action is taken now, he said.

“This is the best proposal we could come up with,” he said of the latest rezoning proposal. “Is it perfect? Absolutely not.”

Board members speak up

Following the presentation, the board had the opportunity to ask questions and seek clarity on the new proposal.

9^th District board member Barry Watkins asked if the 3 and Me program could result in a group students in a particular program or sport being recruited from one school to another. He asked about Tennessee Secondary Schools Athletic Association transfer requirements and if they would be lifted for the friends transferring.

Looney responded that the rezoned student would be eligible to play the first year in a TSSAA athletic program, per TSSAA regulations, but the others would have to sit out a year. He added he didn’t think many students would take advantage of or try to exploit the program.

6^th district rep Terry Leve, who represents a large majority of the students in the Ravenwood zone, stated an obvious from the attendance and capacity figures offered as part of the presentation.

“Ravenwood is still overcrowded on Day 1,” Leve said.

Looney agreed. He said that no matter what rezoning plan is adopted, “There’s no way to take enough kids out of Ravenwood High School to not need a new school”

Leve asked about requests that the district move a greater percentage of Woodland students to Centennial to make the split feeder more equitable.

“I can’t make the numbers work in any other way,” the superintendent replied.

2^nd district board member Janice Mills asked the superintendent if he truly believed the county commission would fund the addition for Hillsboro in time for it to be built before next August.

“I don’t know how you don’t spend $2 million instead of $20-plus” for a new middle school, Looney replied. He described the addition as “a good, practical solution that makes sense.

“In the absence of their approval of this plan, I don’t know what they’d do,” he said of the county commissioners.

Mills also asked if the 3 and Me program didn’t present the same issues that grandfathering does.

Looney said the difference is that 3 and Me does not include siblings of the friends.

Vicki Vogt, representing the 12^th district, asked if Ravenwood would need additional portable classrooms.

“I do not believe so,” Looney said.

Anderson asked about the future northeast high school and how it would affect his 5^th district.

Looney reiterated what was discussed in a previous plan, that Sunset Middle would be the primary feeder to a new school.”