With too few students at one school and too many at another, the district is redrawing elementary attendance lines in the Mid-Carolina area.

But first, it took notes.

A “steering committee” filled school principals, teachers, parents and business and civic members has worked with planning professionals since February.

The workers studied population forecasts and current school attendance, even dotting each student in the area on a map.

And following a May community forum, the redistricting group used the public’s comments to whittle out a final option.

The group unveiled what it called its best of five developed plans Monday, which moves 133 students to a different school.

The redistricting workers tried to stay inside set guidelines like keeping “pure feeder zones” where an elementary school “feeds” into the same middle school.

“We were constantly asking ourselves, ‘does this meet with the criteria?’” said DeeDee Caldwell of The Caldwell Group.

It kept inside the lines of not splitting neighborhoods into different school zones and used major geographical features to define boundaries.

But in the proposed plan, every student will not necessarily attend the closest school.

Still, says Caldwell, there are “no bus rides longer than an hour.”

The option does, however, solve the district’s “utilization imbalance.”

While Prosperity-Rikard Elementary is overcrowded, there are empty seats at Pomaria-Garmany and Little Mountain elementary schools because of recent expansion.

The proposed map pushes Little Mountain’s western border into Prosperity-Rikard’s existing school zone, sending 114 students from Prosperity-Rikard to Little Mountain Elementary.

It also stretches Little Mountain’s northeastern border into Pomaria-Garmany’s attendance space, sending 19 Pomaria-Garmany students to Little Mountain Elementary.

The effect is a more balanced enrollment at the three schools for the 2010-2011 school year.

With the change, Little Mountain would use up 73 percent of its capacity, Pomaria-Garmany would use 79 percent, and Prosperity-Rikard would use 73 percent.

Doing nothing, capacity at Little Mountain, Pomaria-Garmany and Prosperity-Rikard is at 46 percent, 83 percent and 98 percent respectively.

The board will study the map and make a decision later this summer.

“This is our first view of (the plan),” said board chairman Don Saylor. “We don’t want to rush into it. We talked about voting in July, that may end up being in August.”

In the meantime, Saylor encouraged people to ask questions and give comments to schools and the district.

“We’re in a situation where we’ve got to take kids and put them where seats are available,” said Saylor.

To see the proposed map, visit the district’s Web site at www.newberry.k12.sc.us and click “News & Information,” then “Redistricting Proposal.”