Germantown school board eyes zoning

The Germantown Municipal School District Board of Education on Monday voted unanimously on new school zoning for the 2019-20 school year.

The Germantown Park neighborhood, west of Hacks Cross Road, will be the only neighborhood affected at the middle school level. While the students in the neighborhood have traditionally attended Riverdale School, they will be zoned for the new Forest Hill Elementary and then move on to Houston Middle School.

A map of the zoning shows all Forest Hill Elementary students will attend Houston Middle in sixth grade. Forest Hill Elementary is set to open in August 2019 and serve about 800 students.

Superintendent Jason Manuel said district officials still must decide how to handle students who would have to switch schools.

The district had three zoning options and chose option C, which was presented after a study done in January.

“The ultimate goal is the removal of If Forest Hill Elementary would have been open, it would have had 430 students, 385 below programmatic capacity. Enrollment totals do not include students who have transferred into the district. all portables (classrooms detached from main buildings),” board chairwoman Betsy Landers said.

The selected proposal was favorable because it had a balanced number of students at elementary levels and did not affect many neighborhoods. It also allowed the cohorts to stay together at the middle school level.

The only cons were that the enrollment for the new elementary school was low and it put Houston Middle near its maximum capacity. However, since the proposed zones were presented, the Board of Mayor and Aldermen and the school board agreed to add an addition to Houston Middle School.

School board member Linda Fisher said the board waited to vote until the Board of Mayor and Aldermen agreed to build the addition at Houston Middle. The board could have voted before summer break.

The zoning will put each school under optimal capacity. Optimal capacity is a district-set standard that is two students below the state average for class sizes.

Manuel emphasized the district has not exceeded state classroom capacity guidelines, known as programmatic capacity.

The district has made use of science labs and STEM labs as teaching spaces and added teachers to accommodate enrollment growth.

Optimal capacity for class size in the district is 18 for grades K-3, 23 for grades 4-6 and 28 for grades 7-12.