York County starts elementary school rezoning process

YORK COUNTY — The York County School Division is considering rezoning elementary school attendance zones.

Chief Operations Officer James Carroll said the process, which the division is referring to as “attendance balancing,” started over the summer when the division hired a consultant to review and analyze enrollment trends, school capacity and development projections. Once the analysis is complete, the consultant will make recommendations.

Half of the division’s 10 elementary schools — mostly in the lower county — are over capacity when considering permanent “brick-and-mortar” instructional space, Carroll said. None are when factoring in space provided by portable buildings.

For example, Magruder Elementary is at 125% capacity, and Coventry is at 112%. Grafton Bethel, Tabb and Yorktown schools are at or just over 100%. Those percentages dip below 100% when factoring in portable classrooms.

Rezoning, along with other changes, will alleviate the pressure: Carroll said a new wing at Seaford Elementary added eight classrooms, and the decentralization of the division’s program for gifted students at Dare Elementary has opened up seven.

“That gives us a lot of space now, so we can kind of even things out in the lower county,” Carroll said.

The division has formed groups that include parents and educators from the schools that might be impacted. The groups will review and provide feedback on the consultant’s recommendations when they are ready. A public hearing on the plans will be held in late February before approval by the board in March and implementation in the 202425 school year.

The division’s last elementary rezoning happened in 2017. Carroll said divisions have to periodically go through rezoning because of fluctuations in real estate and other factors that impact enrollment. York County has more than 5,700 K-5 students, Carroll said.