Schools to roundup Austin ideas, delay rezoning by another year

It may be a year or more before most Metro Nashville Public School students are rezoned.

Board of Education members said at a Tuesday meeting they will consider a model for community involvement in rezoning decisions based on activities of a district in Austin, Texas.

The board had already, at a recent work session, said they want to see more research and community collaboration before district-wide rezoning decisions are made. The proposal at last night’s meeting marked the first introduction of ideas for a concrete plan and timeline. Austin’s model involves creation of a task force, and if approved, could push back rezoning decisions for most Nashville schools until at least the next school year.

Delays will likely not apply to the Antioch and Cane Ridge clusters, which are overcrowded to the point of needing immediate attention in the eyes of district officials and board members.

“I think this had to be done,” said board member Karen Johnson, who proposed adding discussion of the Austin model to the agenda for the next board meeting. “There needs to be an avenue for communication. … I just want to ensure that the district remains transparent.”

Board members on Tuesday also effectively barred the district from using school funds to establish single-gender academies or fundamental schools in the 2008-2009 academic year, as had been proposed by Director of Schools Pedro Garcia in an updated rezoning plan presented at the Nov. 13 board meeting.

In response to a motion made by Steve Glover, board members voted to ask Garcia not to include any funds in the 2008-2009 budget for the new-to-the-district learning concepts. Glover said the motion was part of an effort to provide “crystal-clear instructions” to Garcia about focusing attention on addressing the district’s current “corrective action” status, which resulted from Nashville schools’ failure to meet federal No Child Left Behind benchmarks.

Garcia had already told board members at a work session prior to last night’s meeting that he planned to respond to their concerns by submitting a revised rezoning proposal that does not include single-gender or fundamental schools. But the board’s vote may prevent the district from pursuing the concepts in forms other than the rezoning plan.

The board activity at Tuesday’s meeting marked only the latest in a long line of revisions to the district’s rezoning plans. The original student assignment plan, first presented Oct. 9, aimed to address changing demographics and a desire to increase parental involvement by zoning many students closer to their own neighborhoods. The plan also sought to improve district efficiency by consolidating under-attended schools and closing some smaller schools.

In response to concerns that Nashville schools stood to be “resegregated” by the plan, Garcia said the district later jettisoned many of the changes. Then board members, in the week before Thanksgiving, took the revisions a step further by indicating that they would like to deal primarily with the immediate needs of the Antioch and Cane Ridge clusters, and delay other decisions until further research can be completed.

A public hearing to discuss rezoning proposals is currently scheduled for Dec. 4, 6:30 p.m., at East Literature Magnet.