The penciled-in district lines just became Sharpie-permanent for the 2010-2011 school year.

The school board unanimously approved a new attendance zone map for elementary schools in the Mid-Carolina area Monday night. This ends a more than half-year process of redrawing school boundaries that say where children must attend school.

A 22-member committee made of community members, teachers, parents and school representatives began the journey for a student-building balance earlier this year for Prosperity-Rikard, Little Mountain and Pomaria-Garmany elementary schools, which all feed into Mid-Carolina Middle School.

The “steering committee,” worked with professional data collectors to find the best way to redraw school lines.

Under the approved plan that starts next school year, students from “overcrowded” Prosperity-Rikard Elementary will transfer to soon-to-be expanded areas at Little Mountain and Pomaria-Garmany elementary schools. The plan affects 133 students.

To make the new-school transition easier for students, board member Lucy Anne Meetze repeated the desire of many board members who want to let parents decide to start their child at the new school this year if there was enough space.

Board member Gregg Taylor spoke out at recent “redistricting” meetings on behalf of eight kindergartners assigned to Prosperity-Rikard this year that will have to start anew at Little Mountain next year under the new plan.

To prevent the kindergartners from having to move two years in a row, Taylor wanted those parents to be allowed to send their children to Little Mountain this year if they so chose.

Like Taylor, Meetze wanted parents to have the choice, but her concern at last Monday’s special meeting was for last-year students—students who would complete elementary, middle or high school—to finish at their home school next year despite the new zoning map.

“I would just like to comment that as of our discussion at last Monday’s work session, I think we’re all in agreement that children in the areas that are being moved can go through the intra-district transfer policy if they wish to remain at their prior school as long as there is space available,” said Meetze.

“I concur,” said board member Jody Hamm. “...let our intra-district transfer policy work for us to help those kids with this transition. I don’t want to see kids have to move two years in a row if that’s at all possible.”

But using the district’s new intra-district transfer policy doesn’t guarantee all students will be able to transfer.

The policy determines who may attend school outside their zone base, and will not let students into a new school if there are no empty seats.

“Just keep in mind, all that will be based on the space available,” said Superintendent Bennie Bennett. “Because I will remind you, you could have a grade level with 15 in a class, which makes it a little easier (to approve transfers), then you go to another grade level and they might have 25 or 26 in a class. We’ve got two principals here that can tell you how difficult (having high classroom numbers) is.”

During the brief meeting, principals Rudie Tarver from Little Mountain and Tim Lyden from Prosperity-Rikard said how many kindergarten students they have for the new year.

Currently, Prosperity-Rikard’s three kindergarten classrooms have 16 students each. Little Mountain’s two kindergarten classrooms each have 21 students signed up this year.

“We try not to get those numbers over 25 (students per classroom),” said Bennett.

Bennett said the district would contact parents the next day, yesterday, about applying for a school transfer.

At the meeting’s conclusion, Taylor thanked the committee for their work. Bennett asked committee members in the crowd to stand.

“I think again, the hard work of the committee and the people in the community paid off,” said Assistant Superintendent of Operations Jim Suber after the meeting. “Through community input and the public forum that we had and the work session that we had, we sought information and input across the school district...and I think the committee came up with a final recommendation that is going to better utilize the capacity in the buildings we have built.”

The new plan will balance the three elementary schools with similar “fill percentages.” The zone changes put Pomaria-Garmany at using 79 percent of its capacity, Prosperity-Rikard at using 74 percent and Little Mountain at 73 percent, Suber said last week.

This past school year, Prosperity-Rikard students utilized 98 percent of the school’s capacity, while Pomaria-Garmany students used 83 percent and Little Mountain students used 46 percent.

“I think for the most part, most people are pleased with it,” said Suber, who said he’s heard “very few” negative comments.

See the map of the new school attendance zones at www.newberry.k12.sc.us

First click the red flame, then “News & Information” and then “Redistricting Recommendations.”

The map is on page 10 of a redistricting Power Point presentation.