DURHAM, N.C. — A new redistricting plan that has been decades in the making is finally being completed, but not everyone is happy about the changes it would bring.
A new redistricting plan, that's 30 years in the making, is advancing in the Durham School District
Last Thursday, school board members voted 6-1 to approve the plan called "growing together" which, according to district leaders, aims to make the current school assignment plan for elementary schools, more equitable
District leaders say this historic vote will help overcrowded and under-enrolled schools, reduce transportation time in the long run, so buses won't have to travel as far, and they won't need as many of them, and increase access to academic program
James Guptill and his partner, Alison Nickles, work in hospitality.
"I'm a retail manager and she's a hairdresser, so we don't have a traditional Monday through Friday schedule," Guptill said.
Without salary-based jobs, Guptill said taking time off of work is a pretty big deal. And that's exactly what he had to do to attend last Thursday's school board meeting.
"We are in the northern region, which is everything north of 85. We only have one option if we want to continue having our daughter stay in a Montessori program," he said.
Right now, Guptill's oldest child is at George Watts Elementary School, a Montessori school outside of where the family lives. She got into that school, he says, from a lottery system since the family can’t afford to live there.
But with the passage of the Durham School District's new school assignment plan, set to move around 2,000 elementary school students into different schools, Guptill says his daughter's placement there is in jeopardy.
The Durham School District tells Spectrum News 1 if your child is a rising fourth and fifth grader at the school, they’re assigned by address or the school they applied to with a continuing magnet program, for instance, Montessori schools, they will get to stay there.
The district calls these schools "application schools."
However, district leaders do say the younger students, if they live in a different region than the application school they currently attend, will get priority placement to the same kind of application school in their region.
"We are told that the hope is that they would be able to place every child currently in a Montessori program into a Montessori program of some sort; however, they haven't been able to guarantee that," Guptill said.
Guptill says that uncertainty is what's frustrating for the family. Nickels agrees. She says the many changes are the last thing her oldest daughter needs.
"My 6 year old who has been through COVID has had no continuity socially ... really, it's the first time she's had friends," Nickles said. "You know any school, she would probably thrive in any school. I think changing now is going to be really detrimental emotionally."
The Durham School District's new school assignment plan, which includes five regions in the county, would begin in the 2024-25 school year, and it's been 30 years in the making.
District leaders say the new plan is meant to prevent families from having to travel far for access to a program. It says families already in application schools, like Montessori schools, will have priority placement to move their children to the same kind of application school in their region.
When Spectrum News 1 asked if that is a "guarantee," the district says it believes it has the space to support every family but would not use the word guarantee at this time.
