LMSD Redistricting - Save the Ardmore Walk Zone!
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Dear SAC, As you are likely aware, Lower Merion School District is currently redistricting attendance zones. Up until this point, this has been an open, all-community values based discussion. With the issuance of the first, and now second, plans, the process has become increasingly biased towards the needs of some communities at the expense of other communities. We are now at the point where the values stated by the School Board as being non-negotiable are being considered negotiable: To wit, Dr. McGinley, School Superintendant, has asked the community to voice 'which' of these values is more important than the other: Continuity of education (K-12, K5 & 6-12, K-8 & 9-12), walkability, access/distance and community preservation. We stated this in the design process - they are all important to us and should be considered non-negotiable. We now understand that the LMHS walk zone - which comprises a significant portion of Ardmore - may 'shrink' and that our Ardmore students currently attending basically non-contingent Penn Valley (thanks to previous redistrcting) may be bused to Harriton High School rather than walking to LMHS. This is so that other children being bused to HHS would instead be bused to LMHS, saving them a short amount of bus time (but they'll still be bused). It makes no sense to eliminate walking (which has cost, environmental, community and health benefits) - creating a bus ride where none exists - for some so that others will have a shorter bus ride and more 'convenience'. Further, our children will not be with their peers or contiguous communities - they will be with children whose neighborhoods are far away from us. I am asking SAC's help in raising our voice as Ardmore residents - we do NOT want our walk zone changed and we do NOT want our children yet again bused far away from their homes so that others have shorter bus rides and retain their contiguous communities. Please, can you help? Time is short - Version 3 comes out 11/24 and final decision is in January. I fear if we do not raise our voices now those who are more vocal will have their children's needs met while our children are again disadvantaged. Thank you. Regina Melchiorre Brown LMHS '85 Bookmark/Search this post with: |
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Your post is very powerful, I hope that they do not shrink the walk zone. If any action is taken with the walk zone, I hope that it would be expanded to include more of Ardmore. Ardmore students belong in the Ardmore school. It is the only opportunity Ardmore students have to walk to any school.
I will include an excerpt from a note that I sent to the board...
...
The official walk zone policy is “that any secondary school students residing within one mile of school are designated as walkers”, with minor exception to hazardous roads and block cut-offs of less than one mile. The policy has been applied subjectively, and adversely impacts South Ardmore's African American community. There are no hazardous roads in South Ardmore and all streets are paved.
A close look will show the official walk zone boundary extends 1.4 miles north into Wynnewood, 1.2 miles east to Narberth, and a mere .8 miles south into the Ardmore community. So while I am 1.0 walking mile from Lower Merion High School, the walk zone boundary was undercut; adversely, I am excluded. All of the residents adversely affected by the walk zone prejudice are South Ardmore families, and like myself, are primarily of African American heritage.
LMSB has expressed an intention to review the walk zone and reduce the area. Why not just apply the walk zone policy objectively? I hypothesize that LMSB is opting to reduce the area, rather than expand (west, southwest) and apply the policy objectively and consistently; thusly including the South Ardmore community.
Sharomine 'SHAR' Martin
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permalinkShar,
Thank you so much for your response here and for contacting the School Board directly. Please encourage your neighbors and friends to do the same - even if they have no children in the schools. Ardmore is smaller than other communities in terms of school enrollment but we've shown in the past that when we want to, we are David to the township's Goliath.
There was a time, before 1978, when all of Ardmore walked to all of our schools - we went to Wynnewood Road Elementary, then on to Ardmore Junior High, and lastly to Lower Merion High School. That was dismantled in '78 when the board closed two of our three village schools due to what was projected then as 'declining enrollment'. WR is now Torah Academy, and Ardmore JHS was eventually demolished. We were sent to Penn Wynne and Bala Cynwyd MS (35 minute bus ride! Oh the calamity! *grin*)
In 1998 we were again redistricted, being sent to farther Penn Valley and getting sliced in such a way that those north of Cricket cross over our village to go to Penn Wynne, which is insane in itself.
Our sister community Narberth has also taken the brunt here - their sole school was closed in '78 and the '98 split them and sent part off to way far away Belmont Hills.
So we have two actual generations of children to examine to see what adverse affects having their schools changed. These would be the classes of 1981 through 1987 and the classes of 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011 and as far as I can see there have been no major academic, social or emotional negative consequences of that redistricting. Our academic achievement has remained high, our children are well socialized, and we've not seen any drastic negative changes to their emotional well being. Why that is not being considered is beyond me.
Now we're at risk again of taking the brunt of a redistrict, this time with a school in our own village, with a Board that may be more concerned with those who aren't in Ardmore than those who are. We've got to make sure our needs are heard, and it seems the way we need to do that is to get vocal.
So, thank you for writing them. Expanding the walk zone promotes healthy living, reduces financial cost to the district in transportation, reduces the number of large buses on the roads (wear & tear, congestion) and reduces carbon loads on our fragile ecosystem. It's the much better way to go.
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permalinkI remember the school in Ardmore, and I remember the elementary school in Bryn Mawr...what you guys are doing is hard work, so thank you for all of it. Your meeting tomorrow will be posted as an event as well!
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permalinkAw man, I go away for a brief vacation and all of the good stuff happens.
Seriously, I bumped your post up to the front page of the site. Thanks for posting all of the events too. Please keep us updated.
-- Doug, SAC Webmaster
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