Do Levittown residents, before they buy their house located in the area zoned for Abbey Lane Elementary School, know that Abbey Lane Elementary School is the only elementary school in Levittown that is zoned for two middle schools depending on where you live?

Five elementary schools all have the same opportunity going from kindergarten through graduating in the senior year of high school together. Abbey Lane does not - at fifth grade - approximately 25 to 30 children will be zoned to go to Salk, then MacArthur, and the remaining about 90 will go to Wisdom Lane and Division Avenue High School. Splitting one elementary school up like this should not have been done. All the elementary schools should have been zoned to continue their education through middle school and high school together. Abbey Lane is the only school where this is different. In the very near future the 25 to 30 children who are the ones zoned for Salk should start at Gardiners Avenue. If classrooms need to be added anywhere - that is where they should be added. It would still be the same amount of children at Salk and MacArthur; just they would start out together and continue with their classmates as the other schools do. In 1998 the idea of having all children from Abbey go to Wisdom Lane School together was considered. Residents on the south side of town opposed this saying they bought their house where they bought it because of the schools they were zoned for. It is time for zoning in Levittown to be looked into again. If at this time building onto Gardiners Avenue is not something that can be done, and the people on the south side of town do not want their children to go to Wisdom Lane because that is not where they were zoned for, children at Abbey, if requested at the time of graduation, or the sixth or seventh grade, should be permitted to go to the school they are not zoned for because of this school being zoned for two middle schools. Middle school is a time of many changes in children and if they have come from Abbey Lane and have not found their middle school to be a place of success for them because they had to separate from classmates unlike any of the other middle schools, this switch to the other middle school should be allowed. When the first day of middle school comes and you're looking for your best friend or friends that you have been with for six years at your middle school and they are not there any longer because your school is the only one zoned for two middle schools - it creates more anxiety starting out and can be sad. No other elementary school student in the other five elementary schools will experience this - just one Abbey Lane child - and not all of those kids - just the few who don't have their friend or friends anymore. Think about being best friends with three other children and three go one way and one the other. It is rare but it does happen. No more school experience, during school or after school activities together again. Not for all schools - just for some children at Abbey.

If this is something that interests you please come to the board of education meeting at Levittown Memorial at 7:30 p.m. on Sept. 5, sign up for the public be heard and you can speak about what you think or ask questions. In addition, all Levittown residents need to be made aware of this split immediately. Real estate companies in the area need to be able to pass information along about school zoning, clearly regarding Abbey Lane and the schools right now that those students forward to as well as the other Elementary schools and their middle and high schools. Along with real estate offices - a letter along with other beginning of school papers should clearly note this when they are sent to all Levittown residents and it should be in the school calendar.

Full disclosure of the situation of Abbey Lane School should be known. Many residents in Levittown are not even aware that only one school does not move forward together like the other five and it is time they knew. It will be interesting how many people want to have their children attend a school that is different than the others knowing of this split. Hopefully the children of Abbey Lane who currently are having difficulty and request a change in the fifth, sixth or seventh grade - can have this request granted and not told - that is just the way it is and they will have to make new friends. Because currently if you have gone to school in middle school and high school together for five years and are going into 11th grade and you move out of the school you are zoned for you are allowed to stay in the school you started in. Does that make sense? The request for Abbey Lane students is reasonable and makes good sense. There are plenty of people in Levittown and out of Levittown that at this moment are attending schools they are not zoned for. How is that? What kind of information do you need to provide when signing your child up for school? Maybe if children were going where they were supposed to be we would have a better sense of honestly how many children are zoned for each school. Maybe everyone in Levittown needs to submit a mortgage, deed, or lease, driver's license and registration - let's see how many things change. For not having your child at the correct school because of a valid exception or something clearly listed in the intra-district policy, the parents should be held accountable.

MaryPat Morra