Hammer finally falls on Tomahawk Creek redistricting
By Donna C. Gregory NEWS EDITOR

After months of meetings, perturbed parents, allegations of discrimination and two public hearings, the Tomahawk Creek Middle School redistricting is finally done. School board members voted 4-1 last week to approve a redistricting plan that will open the new Matoaca District middle school at 87 percent capacity while also relieving overcrowding at Bailey Bridge (95 percent), Midlothian (83 percent) and Swift Creek (97 percent) middle schools.

Matoaca District representative Omarh Rajah cast the dissenting vote - a rare occurrence for a board that almost always makes decisions unanimously.

"The process of this redistricting had flaws," said Rajah just moments after casting his vote. "Facilitators should have been more helpful in instructing our citizens. I am hopeful we will take a closer look at this in the future."

A committee of parents and others, guided by facilitators from Richmond firm, Eperitus, met over several months to create a redistricting proposal for the school board to consider. Some neighborhoods in the affected areas weren't represented on the committee, and Rajah has also accused some members of drawing boundary lines so their children could attend the new middle school, while excluding other students due to their socioeconomic backgrounds.

"I am very concerned about this inequity," said Rajah.

"It's not a perfect process," admitted Chair Dianne Pettitt, who represents the Clover Hill District. "I do feel like we need to correct a bit of misinterpretation about the word 'representation.'" It was impossible for all neighborhoods to be represented on the committee because the process would then become too unwieldy, she said.

"When we started the committees," explained Midlothian representative Patty Carpenter, "the idea was not to have a representative from every community… because that would make the committees too big."

"[The redistricting process] has never been perfect, not ever. It is a messy process, but it's one that has worked well at least in three out of four situations," said Bermuda representative Marshall Trammell Jr.

In recent years, similar committees have been used to develop boundaries for Elizabeth Davis Middle School and Elizabeth Scott Elementary School in Trammell's district and Winterpock Elementary School in Rajah's district. Each of those redistrictings went relatively smoothly.

Two county residents spoke out about the Tomahawk redistricting prior to board members taking a vote. Queensmill resident Mike Matthews complained that his son will attend Tomahawk in the Matoaca District while his family actually lives in the Midlothian District, saying he wouldn't be able to vote for the school board member who oversees his child's school.

He also complained about the committee's makeup. "The citizens' committee had no representation from 19 subdivisions that were moved after the fact," criticized Matthews. "There was no input, no consideration, until the public hearing, and that was on a last minute basis."

Last month, the school system tweaked the committee's original boundary proposal to increase the number of students at Tomahawk. As a result, several communities were added to the Tomahawk district, and a second public hearing was held.

County activist Brenda Stewart questioned why Providence Middle School wasn't included in the boundary change when that school has many empty seats.

She also alluded to Rajah's claims of discrimination. "People from upper socioeconomic neighborhoods don't want to send their children to school with those from lower socioeconomic neighborhoods. I've heard it all before…I would like to know why people believe it's acceptable to waste taxpayer dollars through inefficient use of existing facilities to accommodate their prejudices…I would advise these people that their children will benefit from being exposed to people from very different backgrounds while they are in school. Mine did."

Middle school algebra

By next year, 100 percent of eighth-graders attending county schools will take an algebra class before moving to high school. That's up from just 35 percent two years ago.

The school system is also trying to increase the number of minority students enrolled in honors-level algebra. Since the 2005-06 school year, enrollment of black students has increased 52 percent while Hispanic and Asian enrollments have gone up 226 percent and 40 percent respectively.

New textbooks

The school board adopted new textbooks for K-5 language arts and Cosby High School's Health Specialty Center.

Replacing the elementary textbooks will cost $3.3 million while the health textbooks will be $52,00.