BRUNSWICK COUNTY — In a meeting that ran less that five minutes, Brunswick County Board of Education unanimously selected redistricting Option 1 Tuesday, impacting 516 students.
The option will move the most middle school students (331) and the fewest elementary students (185) out of the four options studied by the school system’s consultant, CropperGIS.
Related: Brunswick County Schools changes location for redistricting vote, expects quick meeting
Reassignments go into effect this upcoming academic year. A timely decision was necessary to relieve crowding at Belville Elementary School and create a district for the new Town Creek Middle School, slated to open in August.
Option 1
Brunswick County Schools (BCS) released the results of a transportation bus study Tuesday — the same day board members voted on a final option.
Besides tentative guesses, specific transportation information had not yet been provided to the public or board prior to the meeting. The board also did not request racial, ethnic, or household income-related data from its consultant, which produced a detailed demographic report that focused on growth.
According to the Transportation Impact study, Option 1 would improve bus times overall by reducing the number of stops. More students now have a bus route less than 20 minutes while fewer students have a bus route lasting longer than 20 minutes. Elementary and middle school students assigned to the Town Creek campus in Winnabow will be transported on the same bus together to improve efficiency — a move criticized by some parents for safety reasons.
Option 1 would reassign 167 students away from Belville Elementary School (currently using 120% of its building capacity). This still leaves the school at 97.5% building capacity after redistricting. With 696 students after redistricting, the school would be just four students shy from BCS’ district-wide policy of capping elementary enrollment at 700 students.
Under the new redistricting assignments, all elementary schools feed directly into middle schools to keep social bonds intact.
View the constulant’s and the school board’s selection in an online interactive map. Existing school districts can be viewed on the CropperGIS portal, where Option 1 can be viewed under the “layers” option.
View Option 1 middle school reassignments below:
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