Dr. Mike Looney

Maps for new NE high school zones spark concerns
By JILL BURGIN
For Brentwood Home Page
A small gray rectangle on a PowerPoint map brought WCS Director of Schools Dr. Mike Looney to an otherwise ordinary PTO meeting at Lipscomb Elementary Monday morning.

In the days before Halloween, a flurry of e-mails circulated among Lipscomb parents, particularly Brenthaven residents.

The e-mails advised those in the Brenthaven subdivision that surrounds the elementary school that not only might their neighborhood be rezoned to Crockett, Woodland and Ravenwood in a few years but possibly divided in half along Knox Valley Drive if a new northeast high school is built.

The concerns arose after parents saw a map on WC-TV Channel 3 that was not published with the online PowerPoint rezoning presentation. The map shows a gray shaded area that covers eastern Brenthaven marked “Possible Ravenwood Zone if NE northeast high school is built.”

Mounting questions and concerns brought Looney to the parent-teacher meeting, where he answered questions for nearly two hours.

Looney spent the first half-hour reminding parents that Lipscomb is not set to be rezoned in the proposal up for a vote on Nov. 11.

“There is no proposal currently to rezone Brenthaven to another elementary or middle school,” he said.

Indeed, Looney told the group any Lipscomb rezoning decision would depend on construction of a high school in the northeast part of the county, though there currently is no land purchased and no funding for that high school.

“In the best-case scenario, that process would take four years,” Looney said.

 “Is [rezoning] possible? Yes. We need relief for Ravenwood, and when and if a new northeast high school is built, we will have to have another conversation,” Looney said.

But many parents at the meeting wanted to hold that conversation now, with some explaining their concerns about maintaining neighborhood continuity and making zoning decisions based on geographic miles rather than “driving miles.”

 “We want your commitment now that you won’t break up our neighborhood,” parent Kathy Dooley-Smith said.

“I don’t disagree with you,” Looney said. “I’m not proposing for Lipscomb to be rezoned. .. . It is a guessing game for all of us.

 “Treating all neighborhoods equitably is hard to do with so many different dynamics.”

Both Looney and school board representative Susan Graham described the difficulty of the rezoning process, a lot of which depends on basing firm school numbers on fluctuating predictions about how many new homes remain to be built in Brentwood and how many residents who move into those homes will have children attending public school.

“I think what’s caused the confusion [for Lipscomb parents] is the circles,” Looney said, referring to the circles drawn on current rezoning maps that designate radii around schools within which homes would never be rezoned.

“I am not proposing that Brenthaven get rezoned now,” Looney said. “The circles are used only to help the [school] board navigate the question, ‘What does proximity mean?’”

Many Lipscomb parents had already e-mailed the superintendent with objections to any rezoning of Brenthaven, while some had organized a petition against any future division of the neighborhood.

Most questions were answered “for now.” During the meeting, however, parents remained calm and kept the tone of the meeting polite. A few admitted to becoming gun-shy during the rezoning process and wary of future decisions.

Lipscomb PTO President Jennifer McMillan encouraged the larger-than-usual crowd of parents to become more involved in the school board and county commission meeting earlier.

“Most of the people who vote in this county don’t necessarily have kids in the schools,” she said. “We must have a voice in these issues.”

Looney agreed.

“We’ve done ourselves a disservice. We’ve allowed decisions to be made, historically, about capacity more than community schools,” he said.

“The [school] board is working hard to get there, but there is a disconnect between the taxpayers and the schools. We’ve always had to play catch-up with parents because there are more taxpayers than parents [in the county],” he said.

“When we meet to talk about funding, the people who show up are against any property tax increase or sales tax increase.

“I share the commitment to keep neighborhoods together,” he said. “I appreciate your desire to be proactive early, but I don’t see this being a concern for years to come.”