What do the school board’s enrollment clarifications mean?

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PITTSBORO — The Chatham County Board of Education made several enrollment clarifications in December regarding the new Seaforth High School, deciding rising 10th grade students could remain at Northwood High School for the 2021-22 academic year if they were rezoned to Seaforth.

The board also voted that students living in areas affected by Seaforth’s attendance zone could continue under previously approved reassignments to other schools, and that reassignment criteria and discretionary admission could take place during Seaforth’s first year for employees only — impacting the children of employees who can attend CCS in the attendance zone their parents work in, even if their residency isn’t in Chatham.

BOE Chairperson Gary Leonard told the News + Record that the board tried to use consistent criteria in making attendance zone decisions.

“What we try to do, each board member, is what we think is the right thing for our students,” Leonard said. “And to keep our schools, of course, as balanced as we possibly could.”

The clarifications, made during the board’s Dec. 14 meeting, followed controversy surrounding the attendance zone for the new school. The board unanimously voted in August to approve Scenario 3, which zones Briar Chapel to Seaforth and Chatham Park splits between Northwood and Seaforth. During months of public input sessions overwhelmingly supporting Scenario 2 — which zoned Briar Chapel to Northwood and all of Chatham Park to Seaforth — many citizens stated significant concern about other options that would “cluster affluence” at Seaforth. The new high school, located off of U.S. Hwy. 64 near Jordan Lake, configured its attendance zone from the existing Northwood High School attendance zone, due in no small part to significant overcrowding at Northwood.

Seaforth is set to open in fall 2021 to 9th and 10th graders, and is set to eventually support 1,200 students. Northwood currently has 1,400 students but according to district data projections, will have approximately 1,056 students in 2021-22 and 781 by 2025-26 under Scenario 3.

During the board’s December discussion, it opted for referring to the discussion surrounding attendance zones as “enrollment continuation,” to replace the term “grandfathering.” The district cited a Dec. 4 report by the Raleigh News & Observer about Wake County School’s decision to stop using that word because of its racist origins.

Grandfathering comes from the “grandfather clauses” used following the Civil War to keep Black people from voting. Wake County tweeted that it would discontinue the term next year.

“We are using it this year to avoid any confusion, as unfortunately we have been using this term for quite some time” the school system tweeted on Dec. 2.

CCS Chief Operations Officer Chris Blice acknowledged referring to the process as “enrollment continuation” instead of “grandfathering” had caused some confusion, but said the district had already stopped using that phrase.

In addition to the other clarifications made, the board also voted that rising 9th and 10th grade students who have older siblings who will remain at Northwood next year could also opt to remain if they are rezoned to Seaforth next year.

Blice told the News + Record that the district will send out letters including information for parents of students at schools near the Seaforth zone in January or February; those letters will include information on the new zone as well as how to apply for a specific exemption. The district also plans to create an address locator system in which families can see where their address falls in the new attendance zones.

“We’ll roll all this information out to the students and families that will be affected,” he said. “They’ll have a window in which to request enrollment, consideration, continuation consideration. I would encourage people not to go too far at this point. Wait until they get the letter. Wait until they get the information; it’ll be really clear … We’ll have the information and we’ll be able to give them good solid stuff.”

Reporter Hannah McClellan can be reached at hannah@chathamnr.com.