Schools to redraw attendance boundaries

SMITHFIELD — Mike Miller, a consultant, sought to temper expectations for new school attendance boundaries.

“There is no perfect plan,” the student-assignment consultant told the Johnston County Board of Education on June 11. “That plan that the board approves later this year will not satisfy everybody. It will not make everybody happy.”

But the plan will assign students to two new schools — Swift Creek Elementary, which will open in August 2025, and Wilson’s Mills High, which will open a year later.

Also, the plan will assign more students to Benson’s elementary and middle schools, which have recent classroom additions. And it might do the same at Cooper Academy in Clayton, where a classroom wing is under construction.

Those schools and classroom additions are the impetus for new attendance boundaries, which the school board is scheduled to adopt in the fall for use in the 2025-26 and 2026-27 school years.

But along the way, the plan will also aim to fill empty classrooms at some schools while easing crowding at others. And it will aim to keep students in the same feeder pattern for elementary to middle and middle to high school.

Finally, the new student-assignment plan will try to send children to the schools closest to their homes, and it will try to avoid splitting neighborhoods between school districts.

But again, Miller sought to moderate expectations. “One thing you learn very early on is that every child can’t go to the closest school,” he said. “There are transportation issues. There are capacity issues; some of those closest schools are full.

“But it is a consideration.”

And so is keeping neighborhoods intact, though Miller and his team rely heavily on residents to help with that. His team is looking at numbers, not necessarily neighborhoods, he explained.

“We’re very good with the data, but we don’t get everything, and communities will let us know if we did something or missed something,” Miller said. “That’s part of the process.”

Still, many families are guaranteed to change schools in the coming years,  Miller said. “You have two new schools, so no matter what, you’re going to have a significant number of families that are going to a brand new school,” he said.

Swift Creek Elementary, with room for 939 students, could perhaps take students from West Smithfield, Wilson’s Mills, Cleveland and McGee’s Crossroads, among others.

Wilson’s Mills High, with room for nearly 2,000 students, is located within the current Smithfield-Selma High School attendance area. “So certainly SSS is going to get some impact from this,” Miller said. “But it can also look to schools outside SSS.”

One benefit of redrawing attendance lines is the chance to better use classroom space countywide, Miller said.

Using middle schools as an example, he noted that Archer Lodge and Four Oaks will each be more than 100 students over capacity within five years. At the same time, North Johnston Middle will have 255 empty seats by then and Selma Middle will have 169.

“Can we balance those?” Miller asked.

“Yes, Archer Lodge is over capacity,” he added. “Are there proximate schools that we can use to help Archer Lodge?”

Doing so, of course, would have ripple effects.

“What does that do to the feeder patterns, not only from middle school to high school but from elementary school to middle school?” Miller asked. “All of these things are in the same swirling pot.”

Parents will have a say, he said. His group will present preliminary attendance boundaries on Aug. 13. Community-engagement sessions will follow in September.

“Right now, the final vote is scheduled for Nov. 12,” Miller said.

He encouraged the board to be mindful of allowing children to complete their final year of elementary, middle and high school at their current school. “When the community-engagement process happens this fall, that’s going to be the question that’s going to be asked,” Miller said. “Families want to know where their house is and where the lines are. But that’s a close second.”

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