A public hearing scheduled for 7 p.m. tonight at Chapel Hill High School will give parents and neighbors a second chance to respond to the school administration's redistricting plans.
Depending on which plan is chosen in January, the redistricting could move up to 1,200 elementary school students. Four plans are up for review, all moving children from the district’s ten overcrowded elementary schools into the new Northside Elementary School.
For several weeks parents have reviewed the plans and provided feedback to a redistricting advisory board. Parents from one of the district’s largest segments, which includes the Parkside neighborhood in northern Chapel Hill, have protested three of the draft plans because their children would be moved from Seawell Elementary to Northside.
Redistricting will include a small change to the high school attendance zones to ease overcrowding at Carrboro High. Students of Frank Porter Graham Elementary must be assigned to new schools because of a decision earlier this year to use FPG as a magnet school for the district’s Spanish-English dual language program.
The Board of Education will take a second round of community input at Chapel Hill High tonight, but will not discuss the options. More than 180 people attended the previous hearing at Carrboro High School last week.
At information sessions and last week’s hearing parents have come out in favor of various plans, with the parents from Parkside and the rest of Segment 74A supporting Plan 4, which leaves their children at Seawell.
A group of parents from the Chinese Dual Language program has asked the board to consider amending plans to leave space at Glenwood Elementary for the program’s expansion.
Dave Hart is the associate editor of The Chapel Hill News.He can be reached at