Group aims to minimize zoning changes

Item File Photo Students at Pocalla Springs Elementary School were given a variety of healthy food options during a taste-testing session recently.

By JASON WERMERS
Item Staff Writer
jwermers@theitem.com

About 50 or 60 students in Sumter County would have to change schools if attendance lines were adjusted so that neighborhoods — and in some cases, even houses themselves — were not divided into different zones.

Considering that there are almost 17,000 students enrolled in Sumter School Districts 2 and 17, 50 or 60 is not a large number. The two districts are preparing to merge on July 1, 2011, which provides an opportunity for lines dividing the current districts to be redrawn so entire neighborhoods can be zoned for the same school.

“That would be really good,” said Karen Michalik, a Sumter School District 2 board trustee and chairwoman of the group that is charged with redrawing school attendance boundaries.

“I'm of the mind, if we can leave a lot alone, let's leave it alone,” she said. “My thing is the least we can do is the best we can do.”

The group, which is a subcommittee of the Sumter Consolidation Transition Committee, has perhaps the most difficult task of the committee's panels. That is because parents often choose where they live based on what school their children will attend.

One example of a divided neighborhood is off Boulevard and Mooneyham roads. The first two mobile homes on either side are zoned for R.E. Davis Elementary, Mayewood Middle and Crestwood High schools in District 2, while the rest of the neighborhood is assigned to Lemira Elementary, Chestnut Oaks Middle and Sumter High schools in District 17.

The main reason neighborhoods are divided is that they were fields when the districts' boundaries were drawn in the 1950s.

At the group's next meeting, set for July 23, District 2 Superintendent Dr. J. Frank Baker and Lamar Atkins, District 17's attendance director, are expected to give recommendations on fixing school attendance boundaries so children in the same neighborhood attend the same school.

Any changes the group decides on would be presented to the consolidation committee, which would either accept the recommendation or make its own amendments.

Then that plan would have to be submitted to the U.S. Department of Justice because District 2 is under a court-ordered desegregation plan dating to 1969, and District 17 has a voluntary desegregation plan. The Justice Department reviews any changes to school attendance zones in both districts to ensure they don't promote racially segregated schools.

Even with that federal oversight, it has been difficult for both districts to maintain a truly integrated system.

A few schools are diverse. The most integrated schools are Alice Drive Elementary in District 17, which is 49 percent white and 46 percent black, and Furman Middle School in District 2, which is 51 percent white and 49 percent black, according to data presented to the attendance group Thursday evening.

But there are also schools of predominantly one or the other race, too, in both districts. For example, Chestnut Oaks Middle School in District 17 is 90 percent black; DeLaine Elementary in District 2 is 96 percent black; and Pocalla Springs Elementary in District 2 is 77 percent white.

Many white families opt to send their children to private or parochial schools, or home-school them, officials say. Baker cited the example of the Foxcroft subdivision off McCrays Mill Road, west of Pinewood Road. Almost all of that neighborhood is zoned for District 2, yet no children there attend District 2 schools.

“It's mostly $300,000 to $500,000 homes,” Baker said. “They go to private school.”

“I'll be honest with you,” he continued. “Race is the biggest issue. I hear from white parents in a predominantly black school who want to transfer somewhere else.”

Atkins agreed.

“In a predominantly black school, the few you have who are not (black) want to pick their own school,” Atkins said. “We've created a society that wants it their own way. That's tough to deal with.”

Contact Staff Writer Jason Wermers at jwermers@theitem.com or (803) 774-1295.

ON THE NET
To view a computer-generated map of current school attendance zones in Sumter County, go to www.sumtercountysc.org/EGSV2SMTR/disclaimer.jsp. Scroll down and click on “Accept Disclaimer and Continue.” When the Geographic Information System window opens, check the box for the attendance zones you wish to see, District 2 or 17, click on “Refresh Map.” Once the map loads, zoom in or out and move it to the part of the county you want to see.

WANT TO GO?
What: Attendance lines subcommittee of the Sumter Consolidation Transition Committee

When: Next meeting is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. July 23

Where: Joseph D. Lefft Administrative Building, 1345 Wilson Hall Road

Purpose: Review recommended tweaks to school attendance boundaries from administrators of Sumter School Districts 2 and 17 as the two districts prepare to merge on July 1, 2011.