East Lyme BOE finalizes school redistricting plan

East Lyme — The Board of Education this week finalized an elementary school redistricting plan, starting in the 2019-20 school year, that would move an anticipated 172 kindergarten through fourth-grade students.

The plan redraws the elementary school boundaries so 101 students within the current Flanders Elementary School attendance zone would instead attend the Lillie B. Haynes School, and 71 students

within the current Lillie B. Haynes attendance zone would attend Niantic Center School, according to a presentation by Mike Zuba of Milone & MacBroom of Cheshire for a community forum on Monday.

The redistricting is scheduled to start for the 2019-20 school year, when renovations to the three elementary schools will be completed.

“I want to thank the community for their input,” Superintendent of School Jeffrey Newton said by phone Tuesday. “This has been a process that has been discussed for over 10 years, and I think the board did a great job of balancing out our elementary schools for the future.”

The board had hired the consult-

ing firm Milone & MacBroom to study redistricting and prepare five possible scenarios to even out student enrollment at the town’s three elementary schools.

After the board narrowed down the options to two and requested some small changes, the firm presented the possible redistricting scenarios to parents at last month’s first redistricting community forum.

The board then requested further revisions to one of the two scenarios. The revisions were to include the Joshua Valley, Stones Ranch Road and Esther Pond Lane area, as well as a small part of Pennsylvania Avenue near Sleepy Hollow Road, within the Lillie B. Haynes boundary, according to the presentation.

The board unanimously chose on Monday that redistricting plan, called Alternative 4A-R.

In making its decision, the board incorporated information from the last community forum, particularly from a group of parents that asked to keep the Saunders Point neighborhood at Niantic Center School, Newton said. He said school officials realized they could keep the subgroup at Niantic Center and still make the enrollment numbers work. He added that it also makes more sense, given where Saunders Point is located in the town, for those students to attend Niantic Center.

The board also focused on trying to keep large neighborhoods intact so students can all attend the same school, rather than splitting neighborhoods, he said.

For the current school year, 369 kindergarten through fourth-grade students attend Flanders Elementary School; 297 attend Lillie B. Haynes School; and 175 attend Niantic Center School, Newton said at last month’s forum.

Under the redistricting plan, enrollment for the 2019-20 school year is projected at 324 students at Flanders; 345 students at Lillie B. Haynes; and 275 students at Niantic Center, according to the presentation from Milone & MacBroom.

Projections indicate that enrollment at Niantic Center could be “very slightly above upper-bound capacity in 2026-27, but otherwise schools remain below upper-bound capacities through the projection horizon,” according to the presentation. If those projections come to fruition, there could be a need for additional redistricting in the future.

Newton said a need for more redistricting is always a possibility — depending on the type of growth and where in town it occurs — but without knowing the future, school officials made the best educated decision and are hoping the plan will hold for years to come.

With the work of choosing a plan behind them, Newton said school officials now will turn their focus to planning for redistricting and making the transition to a new school easier for students and families. For next year the district is planning evening activities, as well as opportunities during the school day, for students to visit the school they will attend and mingle with other students, he said. Monday’s presentation provides a list of potential activities that includes movie nights, arts shows, open houses and parent-teacher association meetings.

The redistricting map and list of the affected streets are available on the school’s redistricting website at bit.ly/ELRedistricting.