Marsh Oaks Information

Here is the text of the Marsh Oaks letter circulated to Marsh Oaks residents by the Marsh Oaks special interest group:

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Eaton Plan

A new school is under construction and another is planned for the coming year in an area of the county which is not experiencing growth or overcrowding.

Taxpayers in the county are not interested in a major redistricting at the elementary level. It causes stress to the families and especially the students.  The best plan is one which benefits the most students with the fewest number of changes, AND saves the most money in the process.

Redistricting students from the Ogden/Porter’s Neck area of the county to Murrayville simply doesn’t make sense. It will require buses to drive students an additional 13 miles each day, above and beyond their current bus ride. This is an undue hardship for the students and costly on fuel.

What is needed most is more classroom space in the Market Street north corridor, not mass bussing of students from these areas to schools 5 to 10 miles from their homes.

We propose turning Eaton Elementary into a traditional school rather than keeping it a year-round school, either by eliminating the year-round school (significantly reducing transportation costs for the school system), or moving it to another campus, such as Murrayville (more central in the Northern District) or the new school (easily accessible by the bypass and Route 40).

By including Eaton in the redistricing plan, the overcrowding at Blair and Ogden and Murrayville schools would be eliminated. This immediately will result in fewer miles driven by buses in that area.  Students from the most northeastern parts of the county who currently attend Blair could be moved to Eaton, reducing their travel by 3 miles each day.  Eaton could receive students from Ogden as well, and no longer be one of the most crowded elementary schools in the county.

Classroom space is needed in the northeast portion of the county. Why not make this situation better for everyone by opening up more classroom space where it is needed and turning Eaton into a tradition school?

Distance from the corner of Bayshore Drive at Market Street (southernmost point of the proposed redistricting of Ogden/Porter’s Neck area).

• Ogden Elementary.           1 mile
• Eaton Elementary             1.7 miles
• Blair Elementary               2.5 miles
• Murrayville Elementary     6.5 miles via Gordon Road

Student Enrollment

School                               Capacity          2008-2009 Enrollment

Ogden Elementary            645                  735
Eaton                                560                  560
Blair                                  580                  620
Murrayville                        585                  607

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In addition, they made the following statements at the Sept 23 meeting (paraphrased)

1. Johnson Elementary was a year-round school, it failed and got converted to traditional, so all year-round schools must be a waste of time
2. Converting Eaton to a traditional school and including them in the redistricting reduces the overcrowding at the other schools
3. Year-round schools are exempt from redistricting, and that should change

Now that we have their comments, we can refute their inaccurate information:

Johnson Elementary School

Johnson Elementary School was created as a year-round school, and has since been converted to a traditional.  Why did it fail?

Any real estate agent can tell you the answer: location, location, location.  It doesn’t matter if you get a $100 million grant from Bill Gates to build a new school; if you put it in a high crime, low income area, parents will NOT choose to send their kids there if they have a choice.  Parents of kids in high crime, low income areas (on average) make poor life decisions, including failure to support the kids education.

In a discussion with a former teacher from Eaton who moved to Johnson before it got converted, she told how she had trouble getting ANY parents to show up to PTA functions at Johnson.  At the same time, the PTA attendance at Eaton is near 100% !  Johnson failed because the location scared off the parents who tried to make good educational decisions, and too many parents who did send their kids to Johnson failed to support them.  Well over 50% of a child’s education comes from the parents, not the schools, and when you get little parental support, the school is doomed to begin with.

The fact that Johnson was year-round was irrelevant.

Converting from Traditional to Reduce Overcrowding

The Marsh Oaks special interest group is now saying they are referring to that fact that Eaton is “at” capacity, while the others are “over” capacity.  Any way you slice it, the schools are full.  If you look at the statistics above, Eaton is already at capacity, just like Ogden, Blair, and Murrayville.  The reason New Hanover County is building more schools is because the existing ones are not enough.  They are all full.

At the Sept 23 meeting, the Marsh Oaks special interest group IMPLIED that there was an arbitrary cap that would be removed if Eaton was converted to traditional, and then magically more kids could go to Eaton.   The school is already at capacity, and Chairman Don Hayes immediately cut down that argument at the meeting.  At the Oct 6 meeting, they said their comments were misinterpreted.  Not likely, considering the chairman himself made a comment.  Regardless, this argument seems to be off the table.

Year-round Schools are Exempt from Redistricting

This argument was just non-sensical.  Of course they are.  Redistricting is for schools that only accept kids that live in certain districts.  Anyone in New Hanover County can apply to get it to Eaton or Codington, so the districts are irrelevant.  How can you redistrict two schools open to the entire county?

Converting Eaton will Save Transportation Costs

So what?  Redistricting is not about cutting costs.  Its about dealing with overcrowding.  If we want to cut transportation costs, why not eliminate all sporting events where the school teams have to travel outside of New Hanover County? Why not shut down all school trips…they can see the museums on the web, right?

Cutting sports travel and field trips is just as looney as converting Eaton strictly for the purpose of saving money.  Cutting costs is just a smoke screen to hide other motives.  It has no place in the current argument.

The problem in New Hanover County schools is NOT a lack of funding where they need to cut costs.  Its about building more schools to serve the growing economy, and that requires redistricting.

We know what they said…let’s find out what they DID NOT say…CLICK HERE.