School Zoning Contradicts its own Principles
From neighbor Heidi Powell Thompson
School Rezoning–Now is the Time to Voice Your Opinion–Deadline Next Friday
As noted in previous blog posts and comments on this topic, the Byrd Park neighborhood will potentially be dramatically affected by proposed school rezoning. The deadline to complete the online survey to express your opinion on the draft options is next Friday, 2/24. Here is the link to the very brief survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/RezoningStudyForum1
A number of Byrd Park parents went to the Community Meeting on rezoning tonight. It was basically just an overview of the information and proposed rezoning that has been shared online here: http://web.richmond.k12.va.us/AboutRPS/Rezoning.aspx , and was also an opportunity to view all of the maps in larger format and to talk to other parents.
At the meeting, it was reiterated that two of the guiding principles of the rezoning process are to “make all efforts to minimize the split of identifiable community components such as apartments and subdivisions,” and to “use major roads and natural boundaries whenever feasible to define attendance zones,” and to “not split neighborhoods down residential streets.”
Up to this point, these guiding principles seem to have been put aside in the case of our Byrd Park neighborhood as three out of the four proposed rezoning options keep our neighborhood split down the middle. The area of our neighborhood that is split off from the rest is known as “Planning Block 61″ in this rezoning process. If you take the time to complete the online survey, whichever rezoning proposal you are in favor of, please be sure to also include a request in your survey response to unify our neighborhood in all four of the proposed rezoning maps.
Thanks everybody!
Posted this on the other thread but figured I’d put it here too to encourage people to fill in the survey!
what I put on the survey. As a 2400 resident I want options 1-3 for sure! I wrote that “whilst viewing our neighborhood from an aerial view shields looks like an obvious divider that meadow was the boundary the residents considered”. I said that “moving Byrd Park to FOX or Munford will not only unite a neighborhood and offer better schooling but it will increase property values, support the reshaping of a previously plagued neighborhood and promote more use of the Park system by others within those schools districts”. My argument against was that “most residents won’t use the Clark Springs option and will move, resulting in a decrease in property values and reforming of the neighborhood”
I was trying to appeal to them on a money side by pointing out the increased revenue from higher property taxes!
Did anyone make it to the meeting?
Sarah,
Options 1 and 3 clearly contradicts the principles and goals of the rezoning by dividing the fox zone with the downtown expressway, a major physical divider. As far as that section of Byrd Park near the lake that is either in or out, I assume your logic is correct. When it comes to tax dollars, the City is well aware of this issue. The elephant in the room is the open enrollment that allows motivated parents to send their city child to the school they want (mostly mumford an fox which fill up every year with a wait list but are technically under utilized in-zone). It is not as as simple as increase the zone and capacity utilization of these desirable schools and the tax revenue would increase because those less desirable neighborhoods would now become desirable. Hardly. The same argument can be made that including some neighborhoods around the park could lower the performance and increase problems at fox or mumford, thereby lowering property values in the Fan proper and the near west end. Im not saying this is the case, but it follows your logic. The real tax issue is if the City minimizes open enrollment, which the outcome of this may do, they could realize a flight to the burbs from middle and upper middle class families currently living in church hill and westover hills for example that make the effort and choice to send their kids to fox or mumford. For the record, im an in zone fox parent and have been stayed involved in this whole process.