The debate over Normal Park Museum Magnet's zone came to a head Thursday evening when the Hamilton County School Board voted 6 to 3 to maintain the school's current zone and pre-K program, both of which have become the subject of controversy over the past three months.
Since the Normal Park program expanded into Chattanooga Middle School (now Normal Park Upper School) in 2007, the Normal Park zone and outlying areas have experienced concentrated growth, causing school officials to revamp a 2007 decision to eventually expand the magnet school's zone.
In January, Superintendent Jim Scales proposed a plan to expand Normal Park's zone westward one street to Spears Avenue. That expansion, however, fell short of the 2007 school board decision to include residents from the Bell–Spears area (the area encompassed by Bell Avenue, Spears Avenue and Cherokee Boulevard). According to Scales, the 2007 plan would increase the school's enrollment by approximately 105 students, causing overcrowding at Normal Park.
But the proposal to scale back the anticipated zone has stirred controversy among some North Chattanooga residents, many of whom were promised that their children would be able to attend Normal Park. Scales explained that in 2007, Normal Park Lower School enrolled 300 students. Now, Normal Park Lower and Upper schools enroll 800 students combined.
"At that same time [that the Normal Park program was expanded], we voted to bring in the Bell–Spears area," Scales said. "But because of the growth that has taken place inside the current Normal Park zone we have seen a real escalation in the enrollment there."
Since January, school officials have met with members from both the Normal Park zone and the Bell–Spears area to garner community feedback. As a result of those meetings, Scales revised his plans in order to maintain Normal Park's current zone. However, the administration mailed surveys to residents of the Bell–Spears area, allowing those who returned the survey by Friday, March 19 to enroll their children at Normal Park.
The administration sent out 90 surveys, and it has since received 51 responses, according to Scales. From the 51 responses, 38 students have indicated plans to enroll at Normal Park next year. Those students, along with their siblings, will be allowed to enroll at Normal Park every year despite being zoned for Red Bank Elementary and Middle Schools. No similar provisions will be made in the future, Scales said.
The Role of Pre-K
As part of Scales's proposal, Normal Park's pre-K program — a $5,000 program that serves approximately 40 students — will also remain intact, but the program will no longer enroll out-of-zone students who have, in the past, been guaranteed automatic entry into the magnet school. "Out of the 40 students enrolled in the pre-K program in 2010–2011, 12 are out of zone," Principal Jill Levine said.
Board members Rhonda Thurman and Everett Fairchild raised objections to Scales's proposed continuance of the pre-K program.
"By law, we do not have to provide a pre-K program," said Thurman. "Pre-K classes are taking up classes that we need for students that by law we have to educate. We have to educate K through 12, and we are taking up those classroom spaces with pre-K that by law we do not have to have."
Fairchild said, "I feel like what we are doing with a program that people have to pay $5,000 to get into is discriminatory. It limits the number of people who can get into that program."
"It narrows down to an easy decision," Fairchild said. "We got 38 kids in the Spears Avenue area who have indicated that they would like to go to Normal Park. We're taking up 38 spaces with these pre-K kids."
Fairchild added that the projected enrollment for Normal Park next year is 834 students, including the 38 students from the Bell–Spears area, and that by discontinuing the pre-K program, it would bring the enrollment to 796 students — four students shy of "ideal enrollment" at Normal Park.
Despite concerns with the program, the board voted 6 to 3 to approve Scales's proposal to maintain Normal Park's zone and its pre-K program. School board members Kenny Smith, Linda Mosely, George Ricks, Janice Boydston, Chester Bankston and Chip Baker voted yes.
Board members Jeffery Wilson, Thurman and Fairchild voted no.
Aaron Collier
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