DATE: September 4, 2012
CONTACT: Phil Giaramita, Public Affairs and Strategic Communications Officer
PHONE: 434-972-4049
Parents Invited to Serve on Redistricting Advisory Committee
for Several Elementary Schools
(ALBEMARLE COUNTY, Virginia) – Members of several elementary school communities in the county are being invited to serve on a redistricting advisory committee that will develop recommendations for Superintendent of Schools, Dr. Pamela R. Moran. At its August 23 meeting, the Albemarle County Public School Board directed the Superintendent to appoint the advisory committee, which will review options for redistricting students from Agnor-Hurt Elementary School and for either redistricting students and/or constructing additions to schools in the division’s western feeder pattern. Those elementary schools include Brownsville, Crozet, Meriwether Lewis and Murray.
The committee will have two subcommittees. The first will include members of the Agnor-Hurt, Broadus Wood, Greer and Woodbrook school communities. Agnor-Hurt currently is more than 100 students over capacity, and enrollment projections for future years indicate that the school’s student population will continue to increase. Broadus Wood, Greer and Woodbrook are possible destinations for students who would be transferred from Agnor-Hurt to eliminate overcapacity. Parent representatives from all four school communities will be appointed to serve on the subcommittee.
A second subcommittee will review enrollment projections for the four elementary schools in the county’s western feeder pattern. Parent representatives from those four schools, plus Red Hill Elementary School, will serve on that subcommittee. In its direction, the School Board required the subcommittee to review a range of options that include redistricting among the schools (including Red Hill as a destination for some students) and building additions at one or more schools.
At its August 23 meeting, the School Board voted to include additions at Agnor-Hurt, Crozet and Red Hill elementary schools as part of its long-range capital improvement project recommendations to the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors.
“We found this past year that parents on our redistricting advisory committee for Hollymead, Baker-Butler, Stony Point and Stone-Robinson elementary schools were significant contributors. They helped the committee and the school division focus on the right issues, and their insight on the personal and family implications of the various alternatives led to the best possible decisions for students,” said Josh Davis, Chief Operating Officer for Albemarle County Public Schools. “The role of parents on the new committee will be similarly valuable, I am sure,” Davis added.
In addition to parents, the advisory committee will include members of the Long-Range Planning Advisory Committee, an equity and diversity representative, and support from division staff. Davis will serve as the committee’s facilitator.
Members of the advisory committee will be announced on Monday, September 24, and the first meeting of the committee will be on Tuesday, October 2. The two subcommittees will meet periodically through November. They will present their recommendations to the Superintendent in early December and conduct two public hearings on those recommendations later in the month. Final recommendations will be provided to the Superintendent in mid-January for review, and the Superintendent will present her recommendations to the School Board the following month. The School Board is expected to conduct a public hearing on the recommendations in March.
Parents who will be affected by redistricting will be notified in April of next year with any changes to take effect in the new school year next August.
All meetings of the advisory committee will be open to the public. In addition to public hearings, members of the community also will have the opportunity to comment on a special website that will be established to receive public input.
Applications to serve on the advisory committee are available at the main offices of the following elementary schools: Agnor-Hurt, Broadus Wood, Brownsville, Crozet, Greer, Meriwether Lewis, Murray, Red Hill and Woodbrook. Applications and information on the advisory committee and its associated projects also are available online at:
All applications should be submitted to the Clerk of the School Board no later than noon on Thursday, September 13.
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