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[quote=Anonymous]Here is the text of a letter written to the school board prior to last night's meeting.  In the letter you will see a call for the boundary study to be expanded not eliminated.  I think across the board what the Lemon Road community has been asking for is to be part of the solution to the county's problem of overcrowding and we strongly feel that we were not represented in this process.  I am sorry that Freedom Hill has gotten to this point in overcrowding but what is being proposed is going to result in Lemon Road being also overcrowded if our concerns are not addressed.

"The parents and community members around the school are quite concerned about the changes being planned for Lemon Road and especially the process that has been used to move forward on these changes.  First I would like to point out that no one is arguing that the excess capacity at Lemon Road should not be used to the fullest extent possible.  Everyone I have spoken with acknowledges that our school needs to be part of the overall solution for the county.  I will summarize the situation as I have experienced it as a parent at the school.

"In November the proposal for bringing more students to Lemon Road was first presented to the parents of the school.  At that presentation, we were told that about 100 students would be moved from Freedom Hill to fill Lemon Road's capacity.  While that is quite understandable given the capacity situation at both schools, what we were not told was more telling.  It seems that Freedom Hill has had difficulty meeting AYP and the set of students that they are planning to send to Lemon Road are a set of high needs students--the overwhelming majority being FRL and/or ESL students.  No mention was made of the dramatic transformation that would occur to the Lemon Road student body.  Also the thought of putting on an addition to the school so that we could take in more Freedom Hill students was alluded to as something we could consider after we fill the school to capacity.

"In a Jan. letter from the principal, Dr. Carolyn Miller who will be retiring in March, she announced that the plans are laid for an addition to the school and work is beginning and that the addition is now independent of the boundary study.  The addition will add 8 classrooms to Lemon Road and increase our capacity by another 200 students.  In the meantime, the only common space expansion that is being addressed is the cafeteria.  The other common areas in the school gym, library, music, art, technology, and specialist rooms, are expected to absorb a doubling of the population.  Lemon Road was renovated just 8 years ago and the common areas were sized appropriately for a school with a capacity of 318 students.  The capacity of the base building alone has increased now to 347 due to a change in the way these numbers are calculated (which is based on a formula for class size.)   The Lemon Road PTA was first able to meet on this subject in a special meeting last night.  The situation is progressing more rapidly than we can respond.

"There are numerous concerns about both the ability of the school to ramp up to bring in 100 more students next year (a 40% increase in our student body) and in the considerations regarding an addition, yet it seems that there is no time to have these concerns heard and factored into the plans..  The impression is that while we may have concerns the plans are forging ahead without due consideration.  For example, the Lemon Road Civic Association has promoted a strategy whereby the boundary study is extended to a larger set of schools, yet it seems that proposal has been rejected for the near term because the other plans are already in motion.  I encourage you to slow this process down, initiate a multi-school boundary study which would include schools both to the east and west of Freedom Hill and seek an alternative near term solution for Freedom Hill.  One option for Freedom Hill that Dr. Miller told us she has suggested is for the school system to take full advantage of Lemon Road's current open enrollment policy.  Under this policy we could integrate many new students into the school through an application process.  That process would allow the school to balance their resources to fit the entering student body.  For example, they could accept students based on the space available at specific grade levels.  While this process itself would be somewhat complicated since you do need to consider family units, it would allow for a proper planning and vetting of the longer term issues including plans for an addition.  I'm not promoting this as a solution so much as suggesting that due consideration involving the whole community needs to be given to the situation and multiple alternatives need to be explored.  A boundary study limited to two schools can not yield multiple options.  In the meantime, the school geographically adjacent to Lemon Road, Shrevewood, is expected to be significantly over it's capacity next year as well.

"If the addition is truly outside the control of the school board and can not be delayed, then I encourage the board to insist on consideration being given how the common use areas of the school might be expanded in the context of the addition.  Perhaps an 8 classroom addition is not appropriate can we not meet the additional needs of the school and some of that space should be devote to a special room such as expanded library or technology lab. I urge to you to insist on more options being explored.

"Regarding the process by which this is all happening, it seems that these plans were being formulated without any input from the Lemon Road community. It has been reported that parents and students from Freedom Hill have been waiting for all this to occur yet our school was unaware.  It is even suggested that the timing of all this with our principal about to retire is no coincidence and common sense would suggest that to be true.    I encourage you to stand up for our small school and see that justice is served."[/quote]

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