WDT: School District: Pay Up or Get Out

      Little Allyson Ivey will have to leave her neighborhood school in the City of Watertown to be bussed over five miles away to the General Brown School District after the City School Board said no exceptions to the 1947 lines that set up the current system of 700 plus school districts across the state. The bright eyed girl has till the first of the year to pay up or get out.
     The eight-year-old and her mom  recently moved from Francis Street to the new Creekwood Apartments, which is also in the city but in a situation best understood by those well marinated in the system, some of the apartments are in the city district and some fall in the Brownville school system.
      Worried about state aid and property taxes, GB refused a bid to redraw the boundary when the project was built.  Watertown officials refused to trade students and property on Floral Drive for the Creekwood property.

Map Shows Portion of Creekwood in the City but Also in GB School District

 

       City School officials say the girl has to pay out-of-district tuition. In a scene those steeped in the system can understand, every day two sets of busses drive into the complex, taking some to city schools and some to schools far away from friends and neighborhood.
      Making city school district boundaries conform to municipal boundaries would likely require state legislation, something lawmakers are unlikely to do. So this silly anomaly will continue and kids will get up in the morning with a school in sight but a long meandering bus ride awaiting them with, getting home after dark this time of year.
      The operators of the housing complex are frustrated with the border issue and say its tougher to rent units on the GB side of the project because parents value the prospect of a school a couple of blocks away.
      I am glad I grew up in an era of neighborhood schools. I can't imagine moving into that complex and subjecting kids to that hassle everyday.
      PS:  If Allyson's mom were  teacher, she would be allowed in the city schools tuition free no matter where she lived.       
Watertown Daily Times | Watertown school board holds the line on boundary exception request