Edmond school boundary plan heads to board vote after debate

EDMOND — After two public and sometimes contentious hearings, the issue of redrawing Edmond school boundaries goes Monday to the school board for a vote.

A committee, composed of administrators and parents, worked in January to come up with a plan to redraw school borders. The new lines are being drawn because Heartland Middle School, in far western Edmond, opens in the fall to help ease overcrowding.

The school district has 24,000 students and is a growing at a clip of 500 more students each year.

Meeting at the administration building Thursday, about 200 patrons listened to a wide range of speakers, some criticizing and others praising the proposal.

They also heard from Rocky Gardiner, of Dallas-Fort Worthbased Templeton Demographics, the consulting firm that helped the panel redraw borders. He said that even with the addition of Heartland, the middle schools in Edmond would reach capacity again in four to five years.

Superintendent Bret Towne said the board may tweak some of the boundaries, and address concerns that have been voiced.

Students currently in high schools would be allowed to finish out their high school careers at their current schools. And some younger siblings of current high school students most likely would be allowed to stay at the same high school as the older student.

Most of the opposition to the proposal has come from parents in northeast Edmond who, under the plan, would be sending their children to Central Middle School and Memorial High School. Current borders have those children attending Sequoyah Middle School and North High School.

One opponent, Jimmy Harmon, said he mentioned at a previous meeting there wasn’t a study done about increased traffic that would be added to Ninth Street, a two-lane road. It was his understanding that a study has since been ordered.

“Why wasn’t this done before?” he asked. “We went into this (redistricting) blindly and need to delay this decision.”

Kelly Bishop, a Northern Hills Elementary parent, said the decision would take a small percentage of students and separate them from their friends.

“It’s not a fair or equitable situation for the kids.”

Charles Woodham, a former school administrator and ex-board member, said some of the patrons may have been overreacting to transportation concerns.

He noted Central in 1985 had only ninth- and 10th-grade students, and its population was 1,800. In addition, he noted Edmond had only one high school and everyone managed the traffic challenges.

Some have criticized Central Middle School and Memorial as not being academically as strong as North or Sequoyah. That message didn’t sit well with parent Kevin Hill.

“Some of the greatest educators are at Will Rogers (Elementary), Central and Memorial,” he said. “You’re making a bad decision trashing these schools. I’m ashamed of what I heard. It makes me real, real sick.”

That was echoed by Kristen Huffty.

She thanked the board and committee and said that residents tearing down one another was “wrong.”

Central instructor Lynn Neumeister said she was proud to have taught at Central for 30 years.

L.G. Hamilton said many parents in the district would have never purchased homes in certain areas had they known about the boundary proposals.

“We need more time to look at a reasonable plan,” he said.

Mikaleh Offerman, a freshman at Oklahoma Baptist University, drove from Shawnee to let patrons know she was extremely grateful for the education she received at Central and Memorial. She’s on scholarship at OBU and said she had a 4.0 grade point average.

“I am so grateful for the education I received at Central and Memorial,” she said.