Vote on rezoning attendance lines for 2026-27 also before trustees Monday

A vote on rezoning school attendance lines for full implementation in the 2026-27 school year headlines other agenda items on tap for Monday's school board meeting at Crestwood High School.

District-level administrators' presentations on the student code of conduct, mental health services, a fine arts strategic plan and an overview of the general fund balance for trustees also made the agenda, which was posted Friday morning, and Chairman Shawn Ragin also spoke briefly regarding the meeting.

The vote on rezoning attendance lines -- or realignment as it is officially called -- comes after a 5-4 vote by the nine-member board at the March 10 board meeting that did not specify a final date for implementation. Now, 2026-27 will officially be voted on, Ragin told The Sumter Item on Friday.

Two main goals in the rezoning project that dates back to a consultant's study in 2021-22 were to increase bus transportation efficiencies, which were improved slightly in the option chosen, and also balance "facility utilization," or schools' enrollments, across the district. Closing low-enrollment schools, generally located in outlying areas of the county, was not considered in the project.

To balance utilization, a project theme involved moving students from higher-enrollment schools in the City of Sumter to lower-enrollment schools in the outlying county areas. That measure generated public outcry in the study, but it kept all rural schools open.

In the rezoning option chosen in April 2022 by a previous board, about 17% of total district enrollment would move to a new school, including 32% of high school students. That option would move forward if the measure passes Monday.

As additional background, the topic of realignment was essentially dormant for 26 months after a January 2023 vote to postpone implementation of it originally planned for fall 2023 to a future date. Then, in fall 2023, another previous school board -- under then-Chairman the Rev. Ralph Canty - moved instead toward a "bigger picture" Master Plan to include the age of school buildings, consolidations and a capital development program for new schools over a short-term rezoning concept that kept all schools open. In that long-term plan, rezoning was just one aspect of several to consider.

A board Master Plan Committee was formed, with Ragin and former trustee Dan Palumbo serving as co-chairmen, but a challenge was it only met about three times in about a year. In the fall of last year, Palumbo called for monthly committee meetings but he lost his re-election bid for the Area 1 seat in the November 2024 election to current Trustee Brian Alston. There has not been a Master Plan Committee meeting since Aug. 15, 2024.

On March 10 with the vote to resurrect rezoning, the total discussion on the topic was 19 minutes, and Ragin - the current board chair - never mentioned the Master Plan concept. In his discussion on rezoning, Superintendent William Wright Jr. did not mention it either.

Even though several board members are pushing realignment now, they are not specifically saying that the measure will save some of the district's rural schools, even though that will be an outcome.

If rezoning is done first with the intent to build up rural schools' enrollments, then it will be more difficult to consolidate them once a Master Plan is completed in a few years.

Other trustees in favor of the Master Plan concept say consolidations need to be considered since the local district has lost about 3,200 students, or nearly 20% of its enrollment, in the last nine years due to various factors including the opening of Liberty STEAM Charter School. In its enrollment model, Liberty adds one grade per year.

Additionally, Ragin will be opening his own public charter school in 2026-27 and projects to have 350 students in the first year. Also, another public charter school has been approved to open locally in 2027-28.

Monday's meeting will begin at 6 p.m. at Crestwood High School, 2000 Oswego Highway, Sumter.

Since the meeting is the board's monthly work session, public participation is not listed on the agenda.