Superintendent Outlines Redistricting Choices For Groton Middle Schools

Superintendent Paul Kadri on Monday outlined two options for redistricting the middle schools – one would send students from four elementary schools to West Side Middle School and three elementary schools to Cutler Middle School.

A second option would send students from three schools to each of the middle schools, then split the fourth elementary and send those students to Cutler or West Side depending on where they lived.

One option

The first option would feed students from Charles Barnum, Mary Morrisson and Pleasant Valley elementaries and from Catherine Kolnaski Magnet School into West Side Middle School.

Students who attend S.B. Butler, Northeast Academy and Claude Chester would go to Cutler Middle School.

The second option

The second option would feed students from Charles Barnum, S.B. Butler and Northeast Academy into Cutler Middle School, and send students from Mary Morrisson, Pleasant Valley and Catherine Kolnaski Magnet School to West Side. Students from Claude Chester would be divided between the two middle schools, so half would go to Cutler and half would go to West Side.

“This is still very preliminary,” Kadri said. “There are a lot of adjustments that need to be made.”

Public forum

The plan is to hold a public forum during the next school board meeting, at a time and location to be determined,

Kadri said that based on a directive from the board of education to keep neighborhoods together, he prefers the first option. It allows all students who attend one elementary to stay together and attend the same middle school, he said.

But the first option would send the bulk of the district’s military children to West Side. Most of the students with parents in the military attend Charles Barnum, Mary Morrisson and Pleasant Valley.

The first option would also pack West Side to capacity. Kadri said he would have to make adjustments to ensure that all of the students could be accommodated at the school.

Other redistricting

Groton is also expected to do some more minor redistricting The district was cited by the state last year because the elementary school had a minority population of 60.3 percent.

A school is considered racially imbalanced if the minority population is greater than 25 percentage points above the district average. Groton's district average in the elementary grades is about 35 percent.

Building plans

The school board agreed Monday , and to seek a supplemental appropriation to accommodate the additional students.

The plans, which include buying portable classrooms, would cost about $1.4 million. Groton is eligible for 57 percent reimbursement from the state for portables if it buys them new.

Kadri said that today and Wednesday, the human resource department will also meet with middle school staff to discuss their preferences about where they’d like to be assigned. In early March, the district will have its first meeting with a student panel to talk about consolidating the middle schools.