East Lyme school board to study option of redistricting
East Lyme — The Board of Education is poised to study over the coming weeks whether or not redistricting would be a solution to balance student enrollment for the town's elementary schools.
The school board took a look Tuesday at a preliminary list of some of the benefits and disadvantages that could come under redistricting, but took no action.
The Board of Education will hold a Committee of the Whole meeting at the end of October or early November to discuss redistricting, hear updated projections for student enrollment and review costs for repairing the elementary schools.
Superintendent of Schools Jeffrey Newton said that revised projections for student enrollment through 2026-27 are higher than the New England School Development Council had originally thought.
The numbers are currently in draft form, but the board is expected to receive in November a final enrollment report from the council.
Board Chairman Timothy Hagen said board members will allow all the information to come together before they make a decision. If members determine at the Committee of the Whole meeting that they are close to making a decision, they would then put discussion of redistricting on the agenda for an upcoming board meeting.
"We're in the data-gathering stage," Newton said.
According to a Sept. 27 presentation at the Committee of the Whole meeting, Flanders Elementary School has 366 kindergarten through fourth-grade students. The Lillie B. Haynes has 302 K-4 students, while Niantic Center School has 169 K-4 students.
According to a "working draft" of pros and cons, redistricting could bring consistency and equity in curriculum, enrollment, class size and community perception and greater opportunities for professional learning, among other benefits.
But redistricting could also mean merging curriculums and adjusting schedules, among other challenges, according to the list.
The Board of Education will review and add to the list.
"It's a big decision, and it's your decision as a board as to if this is something we want to do," Newton said.
He said there are different options, from a smaller project that would move a boundary line to a full redistricting plan.
The Committee of the Whole meeting will also include a review of costs for alterations to the town's elementary schools.
In August, the board officially retracted a previous vote supporting a project to renovate as new the Lillie B. Haynes School, with a proposed cost estimate of $45.06 million, prior to state reimbursement, and to spend up to $1.5 million to refurbish Flanders Elementary School.
The board has cited the state's fiscal uncertainty and the town's current level of debt service as reasons to hold off pursuing a plan to rebuild or renovate "as new" its elementary schools, and is instead discussing the cost of repairs to the school buildings.
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