By Amanda Estes
Staff Writer
    Avoid targeting certain neighborhoods and maintain diversity and equality in South Portland’s schools. That was just part of the message parents sent to South Portland school administrators last week during a public forum about the proposed “redistricting” process for the city’s five elementary schools and two middle schools.
    “It’s a guarantee that no situation is going to be good,” said Skillin Elementary School PTA Vice President and parent Kristine Neff-Jendrasko.
    The “redistricting” process is needed to balance enrollments, create demographic equity in all five elementary schools and return English Language Learner (ELL) students to their neighborhood schools, Superintendent Suzanne Godin said. ELL students currently attend and receive instructional support through the English as a Second Language (ESL) programs at Brown Elementary School, Mahoney Middle School and the high school.
Godin expects to present a plan to the school board during one of the upcoming budget hearings scheduled for 6:30 p.m. on Feb. 27, 28, March 3 and 4 at Memorial Middle School. Godin said she will notify the public of when she intends to bring the plan forward. The school board will vote on the plan, either accepting it as presented or asking administrators to “go back to the drawing board,” Godin said.
    Enrollment trends, tracked by the consulting firm Planning Decisions, show the city’s elementary populations are increasing while middle school enrollments are on the decline, Godin said. Elementary enrollments are expected to reach 1,429 students next year, an increase of 107 students from the 2004-05 enrollment figures. Mahoney and Memorial Middle School enrollments are predicted to decrease to 677 students next year, compared to 707 students in the 2004-05 school year.
    The free/reduced lunch program indicates there are also socioeconomic disparities within the city’s schools. City wide, the average of students receiving free/reduced lunch is 29.7 percent. At Dyer Elementary School, 15 percent of the student body receives the subsidy and Kaler Elementary School is at the opposite end with 47 percent, Godin said.
    The total ELL population has grown from 56 students five years ago to the 144 students currently enrolled, Godin said. Out of the 62 students currently enrolled at Brown, only four of those students should be attending the school according to the district’s commitment to educate students in their neighborhood schools, she said.
Last week, Godin and members of the Redistricting Advisory Committee presented enrollment trends data and a list of priorities that along with parent input will help shape Godin’s plan. Parents and community members then split into four groups and aired their suggestions and concerns to school officials, who were posted at four easels set up in the community center’s senior wing.
    School board chairman Richard Carter said the advisory committee largely agreed on three top priorities: give families the option for their fourth or seventh grader to remain at their current school to avoid three schools in three years, leave the waiver process in place for families with extenuating circumstances and refrain from implementing the “redistricting” plan in phases. The exception may be the ESL program, which may make more sense to be implemented in phases, Godin said.
 Ideas met with mixed reviews included balancing the ESL program, balancing socioeconomic factors in the city, that students who can walk to one school shouldn’t be bused to another school, and students who attend the same elementary school should attend the same middle school.
    “Does the city own any land to build another school?” asked Peter Jendrasko, while participating in one of the group discussions.
    Godin said the department examined the need for another school when it closed Mary F. Marsh Elementary School, but the number of students didn’t justify the need.
    “The reality is we’ve got space in our buildings we’re not using,” she said.
Parents also questioned where the representation was for ELL students and their parents.
    “This seems like a lot of bouncing around for ELL students,” Neff-Jendrasko said. “Has anyone asked them?”
    Mahoney Principal Kathy Germani said she has a group of ELL students who aren’t able to participate in after-school activities because they don’t have transportation.
    “There are so many things those kids aren’t able to do because we’re not their neighborhood school,” Germani said.  
Parents also said with fuel prices on the rise, they support students walking to school rather than riding the bus, when possible.  
    “I think it’s just as important as the class size and ELL,” said Skillin parent Stephenie Cliff.
At the elementary school level, students are not bused to school if they live within a one-mile proximity unless there is a hazard involved such as crossing busy streets or a sex offender living nearby, Godin said.
    Parents also said they hope school officials will avoid dividing or targeting neighborhoods.
“I would rather not draw the lines on certain neighborhoods or on certain streets by this is a wealthy street, this is a poor street,” said former school board member Steve Onos.
    Cliff added, “We want to make sure we’re creating diversity as opposed to not giving it an opportunity.”
School board member Ralph Baxter, Jr. proposed transforming Mahoney and Memorial into one school for fifth and sixth graders and another school for seventh and eighth graders. The idea was met with enthusiasm from parents and at least one school official.
“I would love to have fifth graders in my middle school,” Germani said. “That would be a piece of cake.”