By Linda Conner Lambeck

WESTPORT — Parents of the 51 Long Lots Elementary School students who would be relocated by a proposed redistricting plan want them all “grandfathered in” and allowed to remain at the school.

“Not just rising fourth graders, all of them,” said Seth Bardelas, one of nine speakers who urged the Board of Education at its meeting last week to make redistricting plans apply only to families new to the neighborhood, which borders the Saugatuck Elementary School district.

Kate Jones, who has two children potentially affected by the plan, said she understands the rationale behind redistricting is to shift students from an overcrowded school to an underutilized one.

“It’s tough to argue the statistics,” she said, but added behind those numbers are 51 children. “You really can’t determine what the affect is going to be in terms of disrupting them. 

“Maybe some kids will be fine, and some kids will chose to go to Saugatuck,” Jones added. “But you can’t make that decision for them. You need to let parents make that decision. Give them that choice.”

The school board has been wrestling with the idea of redistricting to balance resources and students across the district’s five elementary schools for some time. 

The proposed redistricting comes as the district prepares to build a new Long Lots Elementary School, which the school administration believes will attract new families to that section of town.

A plan advanced last month by Supt. of Schools Thomas Scarice would slice off a narrow path along the edge of the Long Lots district and west side of Roseville Road, between Cross Highway and Post Road East. Student on the east side of Roseville would remain at Long Lots.

Also shifted to Saugatuck would be households on Janson Drive, Oxbow Road, Reichert Circle, Hitchcock Road, Dover Road, Country Road, Fieldcrest Road, Northgate and Deerwood Lane.

When the new Long Lots opens, presumably in September 2027, phase 2 of the plan would shift 36 Kings Highway students to Coleytown Elementary. That school will have the space then because the district’s Stepping Stones preschool program would shift from Coleytown to the new Long Lots.

Last week, with new preliminary Oct. 1 enrollment numbers in hand, the board was shown how many classrooms might be needed next fall at Long Lots and Saugatuck with and without redistricting.

For next year at least, the district might have to add two teachers if the redistricting occurs because of where the numbers fall, Assistant Supt. John Bayers explained.

District guidelines limit the number of students in a class before it has to split into another section.

Without redistricting, Long Lots would have 604 students next fall and 29 classroom sections, the same as this year. Saugatuck, with no redistricting, would have 400 students and 20 sections — one fewer than this year.

With redistricting — and no grandfathering — Long Lots would have 546 students next fall and need 27 classroom sections. Saugatuck would grow to 459 students and perhaps need 24 sections based on where the students fall in each grade level.

Bayers said without redistricting, there are as many as five classes that could go up or down a section based on unanticipated enrollment shifts.

Scarice said based on the current numbers he is comfortable moving forward with redistricting, adding that he sympathizes with the impact it will have on families affected.

Efforts would be made to group the moved children into the same classrooms so they will be with peers from Long Lots.

There are said to be roughly 10 children per grade level in the redistricting area, although only seven rising fifth graders.

Scarice has pledged to raise the redistricting topic at each meeting until a vote is taken in November. Other than firmer enrollment figures expected at the next meeting, however, he said he is running out of new information to provide.

Noting that redistricting could lead to an increase in the budget by adding a couple of teachers, board member Robert Harrington said his support for redistricting is based on student experience in the classroom being consistent across all elementary schools and not on the budget.

“That should be the driving factor,” Harrington said, adding he gets that it that it can be really tough for the families affected by the process.

Board Chair Lee Goldstein asked for the district’s demographers to show the board at its next meeting what the numbers look like if rising fifth graders in the impacted neighborhood were allowed to stay at Long Lots.

Scarice said he would also like to see the impact of allowing younger siblings of those rising fifth graders to stay as well.

Why stop there, asked Richa Shrestha, a parent in favor of grandfathering all grade levels. “We are talking about 50 students … let’s see how it goes,” she said.

Shrestha said her concern is that making students change schools could impact their social development. In her case, as a person of color, Shrestha said redistricting could also disrupt her daughter’s personal growth and social acceptance.

Another speaker said she is the parent of a second grader on the autism spectrum who has difficulty making friends.

“He is finally making connections with other children,” she said, worried that moving to a new school will disrupt his current progress.

Nichole Luciani said it took her shy second grader two years to get comfortable and make friends as well.

Grandfathering all current students in the designated neighborhood seems like a win, win, Luciani said.

Keri Stedman said two of her children have passed through Long Lots to middle school. Her youngest is there now.

“The community has known her since I was pregnant,” said Stedman. “We are lucky to live where we are. My kids have a home at Long Lots. My kids are Lions, will always be Lions,” which is the school mascot.

Calum Madigan, a Staples High School senior and student representative to the school board, said he also supports grandfathering all 51 children.

“I can’t imagine being a third grader, having spent four years building strong relationships … and now have to [change] schools when all my friends get to stay,” Madigan said. “Fifty kids really isn’t a lot.”

Freelance writer Linda Conner Lambeck, a reporter for more than four decades at the Connecticut Post and other Hearst publications, is a member of the Education Writers Association.