In a move that surprised many and pleased those who would have been affected, at the Dec. 9 Levittown Board of Education meeting the board rejected a proposal to change the secondary attendance zone in the district.

The proposal was for all children who attend Abbey Lane Elementary School to advance to Wisdom Lane Middle School and Division Avenue High School rather than Salk Middle School and MacArthur High School. Currently about 75 percent of Abbey Lane students advance to Wisdom/Division and this plan would have kept all the students together rather than sending them to two different middle and high schools.

The rezoning proposal was originally recommended by an advisory committee in 1994-95 who realized that by 2000-01 Salk and MacArthur will face overcrowding. The plan was to have nine classrooms built onto Wisdom (which has already been provided for in the bond) thus allowing for the extra students. Because Division is a larger high school it can handle the extra students better than MacArthur could. The change in the attendance zones would affect 25-30 students every year which would be enough to equalize the schools.

The proposal met with opposition from the parents of students who would be affected by the change. Some of the issues that were raised by parents were that the change would mean their children being bussed across town when they were within walking distance of Salk and MacArthur and the fact that this change could affect the property value of their homes. Several parents spoke out at the November school board meeting, saying that they chose their home because of the high school that their children would attend and that it was not fair for them not to have a say in the matter.

At the December meeting only one school board member, Paul Granger, voted for the change in attendance zones. Granger stated, "I don't think the community understands the financial impact, which is projected to be significant, because now you have to build additional classrooms where you don't really need them. The change would only affect a small percentage of the community, while thousands of families will now have to handle the financial burden."

According Dr. Herman Sirois, superintendent of the Levittown School District, the board expressed their reluctance to make the change now, when the numbers were not yet at the projected amount, but that is not to say this proposal will not be brought up again as the overcrowding issue draws closer. As the time comes closer the board, according to Sirois, will only have two choices, either change the attendance zones or build additional classrooms onto Salk and MacArthur to accommodate the additional students.

Building additional classrooms onto Salk and MacArthur, which would be in addition to the nine classrooms already planned for Wisdom, could have severe financial implications for the district. Sirois stressed that this would be over a period of years, because the projected enrollment bulge starts in the middle school and therefore the additional classrooms would not have to be built all at once. According to Sirois, "Depending on how many classrooms we would actually have to build, if we have to build four to eight classrooms more than we would otherwise have to build, that would be between $500,000 and $1 million." He explained that the classrooms are built in pairs and each pair costs approximately $250,000. The total cost could be as much as $1 million over a period of years. Sirois added, "If the enrollment is not as high as our projections then of course it would be less than that but those are our outside projections."

So while the attendance zone change has been rejected for the moment, it is possible it will come up again in the next two years in order to prevent the additional cost to the district.