By Linda Conner Lambeck

WESTPORT — As many as 46 Long Lots Elementary School students will be assigned to Saugatuck Elementary School next fall under a redistricting plan approved by the Board of Education on a 5-1 vote Thursday.

Next year’s fifth graders in the targeted neighborhood — on the west side of Roseville Road between Cross Highway and Post Road East — will be allowed to finish their elementary school career at Long Lots under a second motion by the board.

An unspecified number of special needs students may also be allowed to stay on a case-by-case basis, Supt. of Schools Thomas Scarice told the board.

A third motion, by board member Jill Dillon, to allow all current Long Lots students, who would be affected by the plan, to remain at the school failed on a 1-to-5 vote.

A roomful of parents and Dillon were not able to convince the rest of the board to “grandfather” those 53 students and start the redistricting move with next year’s kindergartners.

Letters will go out to families affected by the redistricting decision Friday, Scarice said.

Two years in the making, the plan aims to start the process of balancing resources and students across the district’s five elementary schools in advance of construction of a new Long Lots Elementary School, which the administration believes will attract new families to that section of town.

It is to be followed by a second phase of the redistricting plan to shift about 36 Kings Highway Elementary School students to Coleytown Elementary when the new Long Lots eventually opens, which is now running at least a year later than originally planned.

Many Long Lots families remain unconvinced that the plan will achieve its intended goals.

“We know our kids are going to be disrupted. We don’t understand what is actually being resolved,” said Brian Young, a parent who said it seems a two-year process is concluding with “something is better than nothing.”

 A recent demographic study suggests allowing all affected students to stay could push enrollment up to 602 students spread between 29 classroom sections by 2026, a year before the new Long Lots is expected to open. Redistricting all students could bring the number of classrooms down to 27.

Scarice maintains that the demographer’s projections strengthen the argument for redistricting.

“I stand by my recommendation,” Scarice said. “I am very confident we will transition kids in a very effective way.”

Allowing next year’s fifth graders to stay at Long Lots will not affect the number of classroom sections anticipated, the board was told.

The school has two modular classrooms and the lease is up after this school year. Scarice and the school board appear poised to ask town funding bodies to allocate money to extend the lease.

Board member Robert Harrington said the modulars will give the crowded school some flexibility. Without them, he said the school would become more overcrowded.

“I hear loud and clear you are making it work,” Harrington told the parents. “It’s not like kids are having a bad experience … It’s not an optimal situation.”

Board member Abby Tolan asked about the possibility of adding a third portable. She was told there likely would not be room.

Dillon maintained that Long Lots can handle the enrollment bump until the new school is completed, especially if some affected families willingly move their children to Saugatuck.

“Transitions are not great for learning,” said Dillon. “We’ve said it’s not a crisis situation. I think a gradual transition will do … I would rather leave them where they are.

Dillon said she is in favor of redistricting, but called keeping students at their current schools a compromise.

Board Chair Lee Goldstein said with modulars or not, she doesn’t think the idea of grandfathering all the affected students is the best idea for several reasons.

Having 27 sections at Long Lots, instead of 29, is a significant difference, Goldstein said.

She called moving roughly 50 students the “sweet spot” to giving Long Lots some breathing room.

“I don’t think it’s right to have a 600-person school and a 350-person school,” Goldstein said, referring to the approximate enrollment differences between Long Lots and Saugatuck.

Tolan said the board has a legal obligation to ensure parity among its schools. “To me it is a crisis,” she said.

Board Secretary Neil Phillips said he doesn’t take redistricting students lightly, but added it needs to be addressed before the situation becomes a crisis.

Five years ago, the school district temporarily redistricted an entire middle school into another because of a mold issue at Coleytown Middle School.

“I sat on that board five years ago and had to make decisions that were not necessarily in the best interest of my kid,” Phillips said, adding he has extreme confidence in the staff to make the move as seamless as possible for the students involved.

Julie Gartin, a Long Lots parent, called the motion to grandfather current students who want to stay a perfect compromise.

She said it will have little impact on school sections and overall enrollment.

Keri Stedman, another parent, said she understands the need to redistrict, but said the data provided have fluctuated, enrollment projections have shifted and have been based on inaccurate classroom numbers. Classrooms offline were at one point counted in the total.

On Thursday, the board was also told the total number of students living in the impacted area is 53, not 51, because one family was not initially counted.

That drew chuckles from the audience.

“What is the number?” Stedman asked. “Will it have the impact we say we want?” The decision Thursday, she pointed out, will set a precedent for different parts of the redistricting plan.

Brian Stedman, Keri’s husband, said how the decision is made matters. “I have come to the conclusion that the data, the numbers, are insufficient to make the decision,” he said.

Michael Milazzo, another parent, said the decision to allow current students to stay should be an easy one.

“Please take time to go back to the drawing board and revise the plan that truly solves the problem that the district faces … As a parent I will happily give up bus transportation if it allows my child to stay in school,” he said. Instead, he said children affected by redistricting are being pushed aside to provide a cushion for potential enrollment growth.

Parent Sarah Webb said she doesn’t know how to tell her daughter about the impending move. “I’m terrified of it. It is going to crush her entire world,” she said.

Scarice said in addition to sending a message to parents at both Long Lots and Saugatuck schools, families being redistricted will get information on transition activities and advice about how to tell their children about the change. 

Faculty at both Long Lots and Saugatuck will be made aware and PTAs at both schools will begin to plan visits and other activities.

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.