School Board Votes to Keep Year Round Schools

By Gareth McGrath
Staff Writer, Star News
October 7, 2008

New Hanover school officials won’t change the status of Codington or Eaton as part of a student shuffle to help fill a new elementary school opening near Castle Hayne…READ MORE

WECT Covers Redistricting

See our Eaton PTA leadership interviewed by WECT.

http://www.wect.com/Global/story.asp?S=9134790&nav=menu157_2

Star News Article on Oct 6 Redistricting Meeting

http://www.starnewsonline.com/article/20081006/ARTICLES/81006028

Oct 6 Meeting Results - Marsh Oaks and Eaton

It looks largely like the Marsh Oaks group has backed away from the YRS argument.  Their alternative suggestions have more merit.

• Expanding Eaton to allow more kids to go there
• Moving the Eaton kids to Murrayville and switch the year round status of Eaton and Murrayville
• Finishing the section of road going from Bayshore back to Quail Woods so that Murraryville becomes a neighborhood school for Marsh Oaks

In particular, there is some conflicting data on Eaton…can or can it not be expanded?  At this time, we are unclear on the answer to that question, but if it can expand, then that should be a first priority.  It will provide more options to Porters Neck area residents AND take some pressure off of Ogden.  Hey, there is enough soccer fields in New Hanover County; if we have to take some fields behind Eaton to make room for kids, that’s a no brainer.

Switching YRS from Eaton to Murrayville is slightly better than getting rid of YRS, but it still has many challenges  The Eaton PTA does NOT support moving Eaton’s year-round program to any other location.  Because we are the only year-round school in the northern half of the county, it is vital that our location remain central.  We already have parents who travel just a little further than the average parent because there’s only one year-round option here.  To ask those same parents to travel any further would be detrimental to their ability to be involved.  And, we all know the importance of parental involvement.

While we sympathize with those who are being asked to move from one familiar school to another, we cannot condone their dragging us into the fray.  We support neighborhood schools, but the reality is that there isn’t a neighborhood school in the Porter’s Neck area, nor is there likely to be any time soon.  Poor planning?  Yes.  The fault of the School Board?  No.  They are doing the best they can with what they have to work with.

Moving us to Murrayville would add very few seats to our total enrollment.  And, where does Murrayville go?  It’s a neighborhood school for many people as well!  Moving us to the new Castle Hayne location would, as I stated earlier, cause parents who already drive a bit further to drive even more, and I believe it would negatively impact both our enrollment and our parent involvement levels.

There are no easy answers.  But to be clear on Eaton’s position: We oppose suggestions to eliminate or relocate year-round schools.  Why alter in any way what works so well?

Connecting the road from Marsh Oaks to Murraysville might be a GREAT option, especially since you can already drive that route already (a small part is gravel).  Combined with expanding Eaton, that “sounds” like the best of all worlds.  There may be some hurdles with that argument, but the school board should give it some serious thought.

Curious about this “cut through”, we drove around this morning trying to find it.  Our first attempt was to start at the end of Murraysville Road and drive starting on the dirt road.  The good news was we managed to surface at Cypress Oaks apartments at Porters Neck next to Medac.  The bad news was if you don’t have a four wheel drive and a thick seat cushion, that option won’t work.  The 15 mph, jar your teeth bouncing driving through dirt is not a real solution.

We then found the rumoured cutoff.  If you take Torchwood from Market (across from Bayshore) and head west, except for a 20 foot section of gravel, Torchwood crosses into Courtney Pines.  From Courtney Pines, you run into the Quail Woods area, which is about 1.5 miles from Murraysville.  We didn’t get an exact distance measurement yet; we will do that later after our stomach recovers from the wild goose chase from Murrarysville to Cypress Oaks.

Neighborhood Schools Joins Forces with Year Round Schools

We are pleased to annouce a partnership between “Keep Eaton Year Round” and the “Neighborhood Schools for New Hanover County”.

http://www.neighborhoodschoolsfornhc.com/

Here is the latest statement from the “Neighborhood Schools for New Hanover County”:

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Year Round vs Traditional.  Where do Neighborhood Schools fit into the mix?

In light of the recent controversy regarding year round schools, it may leave Neighborhood School proponents wondering where we fit in this new equation. While it might make sense to some to consider changing the year round program, the truth is, it is a very successful program and is an important part of a Neighborhood School system that includes choice for parents (as are strong Magnet Schools).  The goal of the Neighborhood Schools movement is to make sure parents have CHOICE. Just as we have chosen our specific neighborhoods based on the school system, it’s only fair that year round and Magnet school programs are available too. No one method is better or worse than the next - when parents are involved, resources are applied equally and there are strong teachers and leadership - all of these options work well. Let’s keep in mind that it is the same “take from theirs to give to ours” mentality that has prompted the Neighborhood Schools vs Busing debate to begin with and while it may fix one issue, it creates a whole host of others.

As we go into this next forum Monday night, please remember when you speak that challenging the year round schools or setting up an US vs THEM scenario (and therefore forcing them to come out in even greater numbers) only dampens our momentum and detracts people from the bigger picture. We have got to remain focused on supporting neighborhood schools and getting the board to remove Options 5 and 6 from the table. Period. Once we are looking only at a Neighborhood School map (likely Option 4), we can tweak it appropriately to disrupt as few children as possible in this redistricting.  Then, and only then, can we focus on finding both short and long term ways of resolving the challenges within our system.

Civil War Developing in Marsh Oaks

The Marsh Oaks special interest group has set off a civil war in their own development.  Many parents of Eaton kids live in Marsh Oaks, and stories are coming out that anyone in Marsh Oaks openly supporting Eaton remaining year-round is being shunned at soccer games, community events, the grocery store, and other public locations.  Some Eaton parents in Marsh Oaks are worried about publicly speaking at the next redistricting forum for fear of how they will be treated when they drive home.

The special interest group members are acting like children. They had to be reprimanded at the previous board meeting for disruptive behavior, and now they are refusing to speak to neighbors in their own development.   What a wonderful example for their children they are setting!

Star-News Oct 3 Article on Eaton/Marsh Oaks

http://www.starnewsonline.com/article/

Eaton Parents Meeting - Friday, Oct 3 - 6 pm until 8 pm

The PTA is sponsoring a Strategy Session in preparation of the upcoming Redistricting Forum on Monday. The Strategy Session will be held on Friday, October 3rd, from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m., in the multi-purpose room. This meeting will allow us to collectively formulate a plan to counter the arguments being made in favor of “traditionalizing” Eaton.