School board may get new rezoning proposal tonight
By SUSAN LEATHERS
Brentwood Home Page
The Williamson County Board of Education will discuss rezoning as agenda item "No. 3: Unfinished Business" when it meets tonight at 6:30 p.m. Whether the matter moves closer to "finished" is yet to be discovered.

Last week Superintendent Dr. Mike Looney told BHP that he’s “hopeful” to have a revised plan ready to present, but cannot guarantee it.

“It’s more important to get it right than to get it on time,” he said on Wednesday.

Looney and top members of his staff have been concurrently working on a new rezoning plan and fine-tuning a district-wide school capacity study it undertook following a special-called meeting Oct. 1. A draft of the study was presented to the board on Oct. 14.

The rezoning process began in March, when the county contracted with an outside firm to develop a plan using three criteria: Feeder patterns, capacity and student proximity to their school. That plan was unveiled to the board Sept. 20. A second plan, revised by the WCS staff using local data, was presented Sept. 27.

The second plan, as presented, would rezone approximately 5,000 or 10 percent of the district’s 31,000 students. A huge sticking point of both of the proposals so far is the rezoning of a sliver of homes located along the “Carothers Corridor” – developments just east and south of Carothers Boulevard in Cool Springs – from Woodland/Ravenwood to Woodland/Centennial. Even with the addition of the Avalon development,

Woodland Middle School, located in Brentwood, becomes a split feeder school, with 83 percent of its students heading to Ravenwood, and 17 percent to Centennial. Parents have asked for a more equitable split since Ravenwood remains overcrowded and Centennial has additional capacity.

Tonight’s agenda also includes:

• Approval of Ravenwood High batting cage cover
• A resolution to amend the 2010-2011 budget, which could include a major increase in medical insurance costs for WCS employees.
• A decision on whether or not to join the Tennessee School Board Association. Williamson County is the only district in the state which is not a member.

Monday's meeting will be held in the auditorium of the Williamson County Administrative Complex, 1342 West Main Street, Franklin. It will be broadcast live on Comcast Channel 3.