The Red Clay Board of Education has postponed a decision on whether to eliminate school choice bus stops as well as the reference to the old Wilmington High School feeder pattern in its choice policy.
There are a limited number of so-called choice bus stops in the Red Clay District that provide transportation for middle and high school students that choose to attend a school other than the one they are assigned to. That type of transportation is paid for entirely with local tax dollars, said Assistant Superintendent Dr. Mervin Daugherty at the board meeting held Sept. 17 at Warner Elementary School.
The district’s elimination of choice stops at the elementary school level in 2005 was precipitated by redrawing attendance zones to send children closer to home, Daugherty said. The district believes it is now time to do the same at the secondary level.
Board President Irwin J. Becnel Jr. said choice bus stops should be eliminated, but not until 2011 – permitting sixth- and seventh-graders this year to go through high school on the ground rules they started on. Becnel said the immediate elimination of choice bus stops would likely cause several students to switch schools.
“We can’t afford to continue providing locally funded choice bus stops,” Becnel said. “But I’ve long felt that stability of children in school is critical. I don’t believe we should do this next year.”
Brandywine Springs Manor resident Amanda Gonye complained to the board about the pending change.
“Parents are completely surprised this is coming,” Gonye said.
Her eldest daughter Elizabeth, now a freshman at The Charter School of Wilmington – benefited from the choice bus stops when she graduated from Brandywine Springs and went on to Henry B. duPont Middle School – the furthest middle school from the Gonye home. It is the same for Gonye’s second daughter Anna, who is now a seventh-grader at H.B. duPont. Her bus stop would not be close enough for her to walk home with the change.
Gonye’s youngest daughter Claire is in her final year at Brandywine Springs.
Board member Leah Davis said she is in the process of obtaining data to see how many students this move would affect and the cost of waiting two years for the change.
“Regardless of when we do it, we need a communication plan so that the public is aware,” Davis said.
Board member Marguerite E. Vavalla said she too was willing to postpone a vote, but she is in favor of eliminating the extra bus stops next year.
“We are the only district in the state that provides this,” Vavalla said. “We asked everybody to make huge sacrifices last year to get where we are financially. It’s been a privilege Red Clay has provided choice students and we’ve got to watch money.”
Board Vice President James J. Buckley agreed, saying the district should drop it “cold turkey.”
“We’re looking at what’s fair to all students. We already have … students who don’t qualify because they don’t live in the right neighborhoods, which to me is unfair,” Buckley said. “This whole program has gone on for far too long.”
Daugherty said the board must act at its October meeting in order for families to know of any changes before the open choice period begins in November.
If the school board approves the changes the district will actually fall into compliance with choice transportation guidelines in Delaware law, Daugherty said.
As for the old Wilmington High School attendance zone, the board eliminated it in June, Daugherty said. Therefore, reference to the defunct feeder pattern in the choice policy needed to be deleted.
Wilmington students heretofore had a preference given to them during the choice process, because Red Clay has not used the Wilmington High attendance zone since 1995. The Charter School of Wilmington and the magnet Cab Calloway School of the Arts occupy the building today.
The reassignment aims to balance overcrowding and under-use in the district's three high schools. Alexis I. duPont High School in Greenville has become the district’s most popular choice school, where more than half (900 of the 1,500 students) have “choiced in,” district officials said. As a result, the school is at 105 percent capacity while Dickinson and McKean are underutilized at 77 percent and 71 percent, respectively.
“The purpose of assigning students a ‘default’ school if they do not submit a choice application is to provide equal distribution among the high schools,” Daugherty said. “If students want to place out, we already have a lottery.”
Also, whereas the district had said a wait list “will" be established for each school, the proposed change would state that it “may” establish wait lists.
