Brick Township Board of Education/Schools (Photo: Daniel Nee)
Details have been hard to come by with regard to a proposed redistricting plan in the Brick school system, which would change the geographic boundary lines of four elementary schools.
Brick Shorebeat has filed an Open Public Records Act request seeking documents that could help explain the proposal further, but in the mean time, through sources and a portion of a presentation given to a group of parents, several facts have emerged.
District officials have already said the redistricting plan would affect four schools: Veterans Memorial Elementary School, Herbertsville Elementary School, Lanes Mill Elementary School and Midstreams Elementary School. Recently, the district divulged to parents in a presentation the exact streets that would be affected by the plan. These streets include Sawmill Road, Spiral Drive, Bay Bridge Drive, Oak Knoll Drive, Herbertsville Road, Eastham Road, Oxford Road, Aldgate Drive, Smith Road, Barclay Drive, Smith Circle, Azalea Drive, Driscol Drive and MacArthur Drive.
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Controversy has surfaced in the northern portion of town primarily because of the inclusion of Sawmill Road on the list. The street is part of a troubled condominium complex known as Maple Leaf Park, which has garnered public scrutiny in recent years for its crime issues. Students from the street will be migrated to Herbertsville Elementary School, sources have said. The street is geographically closer to Herbertsville than Lanes Mill or VMES.
As it currently stands, the district is also planning to move 18 students from Veteran Memorial Elementary School to Herbertsville and 46 students to Midstreams Elementary School. Parents will be able to request their child remain in their current school and an appeals process will be set up, parents were told during meetings.
The majority of the streets on the list, including the large Bay Bridge community, will move to Midstreams.
The district is also expecting to add classes at Warren Wolf Elementary School which will eventually even out the student population in the southern portion of the township, according to sources.
The plan has yet to be fully carved out, however it is expected to be presented at a Board of Education meeting set for May 11. An agenda has yet to be posted for that meeting, however.
