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Board will look at choices tonight for realignment in North Syracuse schools.
More than 130 Clay parents have signed a petition opposing one of the three final options for realigning North Syracuse's middle schools and adjusting enrollment figures, and many plan to speak out at tonight's school board meeting.
The parents, from the Lawton Valley/Cherry Estates area of Clay, said the realignment committee's top option of sending all fifth- and sixth-graders from the Karl W. Saile Bear Road Elementary School zone to Roxboro Road Middle School in Mattydale rather than Gillette Road Middle School in Cicero "makes no sense." All Smith Road Elementary School fifth- and sixth-graders would go to Gillette.
Previously, children from the Bear Road and Smith Road zones were split between Gillette and Roxboro middle schools.
"It boggles my mind that this is their decision when we live so close to Gillette. . . . For us who live in this area, it would be a real hardship to send our kids all the way to Mattydale, almost to Syracuse," said one parent, Ellen Kotzin, whose children attend second and third grade at Bear Road. "People moved here with the intention of going to specific schools. . . . If they choose this plan, people will find a way to get out of it."
The enrollment at Gillette is nearing capacity, while the enrollment at Roxboro Road is
declining, district officials say. The district is looking to better balance the enrollment between the two buildings and formed a 25-member volunteer committee in January.
The committee, with parents, staff and administrators from both middle schools, created seven possible realignment scenarios and selected three final options.
North Syracuse Superintendent Jerome Melvin said no decision will be made today. Assistant Superintendent for Instruction Steve Carr, who headed the committee, will present more data about the three final options today and the board will likely make a decision later this month, Melvin said.
He said he knows some parents are upset by the options, but he declined to comment on their specific concerns.
Kotzin said parents have a number of concerns with one of the options, which she said is the committee's top choice: a longer bus ride to Roxboro compared to Gillette; pupils traveling in a bus along interstate highways; a longer drive for parents to attend school events and pick up children from extracurricular activities; the speed of implementing a plan for September; buses for both Roxboro and Gillette going through the neighborhood; and the splitting of older and younger siblings who would have otherwise attended the same school.
The committee has stated that the benefits of this option include keeping children who live near Roxboro at that school; keeping all seventh-graders in their current schools; and bringing each building to about 91 percent enrollment capacity, according to information packets given to district parents.
The committee acknowledged in the packets that busing, splitting up siblings and scheduling conflicts for families are concerns. However, the information states only three Bear Road families would have siblings that have to attend different schools.
Sapna Kollali can be reached at skollali@syracuse.com or 470-3257.
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