Story Published:
Mar 9, 2010 at 10:27 PM CST
Story Updated:
Mar 10, 2010 at 2:47 PM CST
In a five to one vote last week, the Putnam County School Board approved a new "hard line zoning" plan that will mean students living in zoned areas must go to the indicated school.
But since that decision, Director of Schools Kathleen Airhart and her staff have been inundated with parental feedback. The parents are not happy. And they are not happy in large numbers.
In response to public concern, the School Board has called a special meeting scheduled for next Thursday, March 18 at 6 p.m. No agenda has been published yet, but the zoning concern, along with a couple of other topics, are expected to be considered.
The school board has blown up large maps for parents to be able to see their streets easily and CookevilleTimes.com has published the maps of the zones as well.
Last week's zoning decision would mean that students entering kindergarten or fifth grade would be required to go to the school to which they were zoned. Students already enrolled in an elementary school outside of their zone would be permitted to continue at that school. The zoning does not apply to high school students, who retain their choice of schools.
Board member Vern Crabtree would like the Board to look at a return to "soft zoning," which would allow students who live in the area to register for the nearby school first, then allow students from other parts of the county to register, so long as there is room in the school.
As a result of the hard line zoning vote, there are now no choices in the school a student attends. Students must go to the zoned area if they are an entering kindergartener or fifth grader.
Crabtree said "I think we need to get back together and reconsider this. We have a couple of weeks and I believe that there are several things that we didn't think about last week."
Crabtree referenced an earlier study on the subject and the recommendations of that study, "The recommendation was for soft zoning, which would allow some flexiblity. In light of the number of complaints we've gotten, I really think it's a good idea for us to get back together."
Send your thoughts to CookevilleTimes. Should the board reconsider?
