By MARY EVA CASSADA

Special to The News & Record

The much-anticipated school re-zoning plan not only closes Halifax Elementary and reconfigures attendance zones but shaves students from every school – sometimes dramatically so – in part to accommodate two brand-new elementaries.

The plan can’t take effect until after a mandatory public hearing March 6, a follow-up work session March 8 and an official vote on March 12.

In dispatching 6th grade and most pre-K classes elsewhere, both big new schools still fall far short of their student capacity, while some existing schools are left using a paltry 40-48 percent of their site space.

The new South Boston school will hold, at a maximum, 950 students, but is being assigned 762.

Cluster Springs, at the brim, holds 750, and has been assigned 604. That’s about 80 percent capacity at each.

Meanwhile, at least two county schools – Turbeville and Wilson Memorial – remain vulnerable with their miniscule populations (117, 133) that easily could be absorbed by the big new schools.

In terms of attendance numbers, re-zoning and the removal of pre-Ks and 6th grades do the small schools no favors: With the exception of Wilson Memorial (holding steady), and the soon-to-be consolidated South Boston, every school loses pupils.

In spite of all the tedious work last week, “We might have to revisit” the issue of small schools, said board member Sandra Rister, depending on how school populations hold up down the road.

Superintendent Paul Stapleton himself said the zones would last only until the board, or a future board, decides they needed realigning yet again.

“You have buildings with far more capacity than you have students,” Stapleton pointed out.

Deputy superintendent Larry Clark said the consolidation of as many as six schools by August, – coupled the relentless dwindling of student population over the years – will result in “fewer personnel needs.”

He said he hoped “natural attrition” would take care of most duplicate positions. This year alone, for example, Halifax hired 56 new professional employees. Some staff, however, will be reassigned to positions for which they’re qualified.

Workers who will be re-assigned or laid off must be notified by April 15, he noted, but Clark can’t take action until the school board decides on Halifax Elementary.

The major change would consolidate Halifax Elementary with its sister school, Sinai, thus making one K-5 school that will align with all the other county K-5 schools.

Room for grades K-2 at Sinai comes with moving large chunks of its attendance zones, including Golf Course Road, Berry Hill and Dan River, to the new South Boston Elementary.

The new Cluster Springs Elementary’s attendance zone remains largely unchanged.

“It’s hard to say you can’t save money if you close schools,” Stapleton told the board. “It costs less to operate one facility than two facilities.”

Combining schools “saves personnel” as larger schools capitalize on economies of scale.

Despite that hard-to-dispute financial advice, neither the school board nor staff seemed prepared to do anything more drastic than propose shutting Halifax and folding it into Sinai.

Stapleton recommended holding onto the attractive, historic Halifax Elementary building for use as staff office space, the Law and Leadership Academy, pre-K classes – or some combination.

Although the soon-to-be-vacated C.H. Friend Elementary had been a frontrunner as a Law and Leadership hub, Stapleton said it made sense in Halifax because the courts and jail are several blocks away and because a bus already runs between the high school and the STEM Center, also in Halifax.

Although the inside is “not quite as pretty” as the 1930s red-brick exterior, “You couldn’t ask for a more beautiful” school board office, said Stapleton.

Central office personnel Dr. Melanie Stanley and Virginia Jones worked up the new zones on sophisticated software designed to draw bus routes, VersaTrans. It enabled them to see every student on every road in the county, the child’s grade, telephone, race and student ID number while also plotting short, sensible bus routes.

Stapleton said they worked hard to retain the racial makeup of the schools. Remarkably, racial percentages fluctuated at most six percentage points and typically remained unchanged.

“I think you’ve got a reasonable plan,” said Stapleton. “Everybody may not like it, but it’s reasonable.”

Not discussed was what to do with the pre-K programs and their 250 four-year-olds. The program is popular locally and expansion is one of Gov. Tim Kaine’s main initiatives. The two new schools were not designed to accommodate small children, so preschoolers at Washington-Coleman, South of Dan and, if it is indeed closed, Halifax, will have to be reassigned somewhere. Of the other schools, only Clays Mill, Sydnor Jennings and Meadville retain their pre-Ks.

Stapleton counseled the board to get the potentially controversial re-zonings and school closings behind them before tackling the pre-K issue.

Board members Joe Bailey III – in whose district Halifax Elementary sits – and Nancylee Bagwell did not attend the work session.

Parents wanting detailed information about re-zoning may contact the Central Office. Staff said detailed maps soon will be available on the school system’s website, www.halifax.k12.va.us.