PCSC board holds special meeting regarding redistricting
On Wednesday night, Plymouth Community School Corporation held a special school board session to present two different options for redistricting of the corporation. at the end of the presentation, there was a question and answer session where the public was able to voice their opinions, ask questions, and voice concerns.
Jerry Mckibben from Mckibben Demographic Research, LLC gave the presentation.
Before passing the microphone to Mckibben, Superintendent Mitch Mawhorter informed those in attendance that this was only an informational meeting and that nothing would be decided that night. “We wanted to have you here so that we could answer some questions for you,” he said.
The superintendent went on to state that the corporation started to go down the path of redistricting so that students can have an equitable experience. Preschool opportunities, a planned and consistent curriculum, collaboration and sharing among each other and buildings to create the best outcomes for kids, STEM certification, and rethinking of transportation all play a part to why the corporation is looking at redistricting options.
Mckibben stated that the last redistricting in 2010 focused on making Washington Discovery academy into a magnet school. “We had a lot of out of district kids coming into it so the intention was to have a relatively small service area for Washington, just enough for a base population, and fill the rest of it with out of district students and then balance the other ones around the other three elementary schools. It didn’t quite turn out that way for a host of reasons,” he said.
Currently, the State of Indiana is pushing to have all schools become STEM certified.
“So, the manifest function here is basically to repopulate Washington. Give it the same size number of students as the other ones and make them all roughly the same size,” Mckibben said.
Based on design capacity, Mckibben said that number for each class
would be around 70 percent.
Option One would have the fewest number of students being moved. “Basically, for the most part, it takes territory of people out of Menominee and puts it into Washington with minor changes to the other schools,” he said.
Option One would then show the following amount of students per school:
• Jefferson - 76 percent capacity (67 percent currently)
• Menominee - 66 percent capacity (77 percent currently)
• WDA - 74 percent capacity (54 percent currently)
• Webster - 75 percent capacity (93 percent currently)
• Riverside - 80 percent capacity (80 percent currently)
• Lincoln JHS - 69 percent capacity (69 percent currently)
• PHS - 68 percent capacity (68 percent capacity)
“The intent purpose of this particular option is how can we implement this plan and move the fewest amount of kids necessary to basically repopulate Washington and give it a good base population,” Mckibben said.
The second option was described as “more radical” by Mckibben. This option would balance the schools over a period of time and give the district more flexibility when it comes to moving out of district kids into different areas.
“Basically, you move like three times as many kids in this option but if you wanted to keep Menominee basically the service area for the western part of the district this is what it looks it,” he said.
Option Two would then
show the following amount of students per school:
• Jefferson - 71 percent capacity (67 percent currently)
• Menominee - 73 percent capacity (77 percent currently)
• WDA - 71 percent capacity (54 percent currently)
• Webster - 75 percent capacity (93 percent currently)
• Riverside - 80 percent capacity (80 percent currently)
• Lincoln JHS - 69 percent capacity (69 percent currently)
• PHS - 68 percent capacity (68 percent capacity)
“The function of this is if you can put the kids back in their home elementary where they’re supposed to go, it’s going to greatly reduce your transportation costs for starters. And also it’s going to keep all your classrooms about the same size,” said Mckibben.