Despite Emotional Pleas From Parents, Batavia Highland Students Will Change Schools

Parents of elementary-school students in the Batavia Highlands area did everything they could to dissuade School District 304 School Board members from voting on a boundary change for "Area 20."

They carried picket signs, they attended School Board meetings, they wrote letters and emails to district officials, they posted blogs. They brought their children to the podium to make emotional pleas, they talked about their kids crying themselves to sleep. They argued that their neighborhood was being singled out and disciminated against because they are in the Batavia city limits. They pointed to the numerous moves from school to school that Batavia Highlands kids have had to make over the past 25 years.

In the end, Geneva School Board members voted 5-1 Monday night to make the boundary change, causing one parent to shout at the board as she left for the door.

"You should all be ashamed of yourselves," she called out. "Congratulations."

Board member Mike McCormick cast the lone vote against the Boundary Task Force recommendation.

"This is a really tough decision, and one of the first times I’m going to vote against a recommendation," he said. "This afternoon, I was wrestling back and forth. As a parent, I understand what you guys are going through, and I just don’t see a monetary gain here."

School District 304 had looked at moving about 25 to 65 students from Williamsburg Elementary to Western Avenue School and from 30 to 70 students from Mill Creek Elementary to Fabyan Elementary in order to gain some enrollment balance and keep class sizes down.

But the task force research and feedback from four February forums showed how difficult that process could be.

"The task force determined that changes to boundaries at MCS (Mill Creek) and FES (Fabyan) would not achieve any of the desired goals at this time," the task force report states. "Enrollment numbers and classroom sizes would essentially just be flipped, and the task force members felt that current market and development conditions did not allow for accurate predictions about which school would see the most growth in the future. Therefore, the task force removed these neighborhoods from consideration for the present time."

None of the suggested moves met the task force's stated goals of balancing building enrollment or creating efficiencies in the number of staff. 

Area 25—located in downtown Geneva along Seventh Street and South Street—didn't meet the goals of keeping a neighborhood intact or saving money on busing. Area 25 students would have had to move from Williamsburg to Western Avenue.

But Area 20—Batavia Highlands—did meet some of the criteria the task force was seeking, including:

• Keeping the neighborhood intact. 
• Creating efficiencies in busing (distance).
• Busing to the nearest school (not passing a neighborhood school to get to another). 
• Reducing the number of hazardous routes in transportation such as major roads, railroad tracks.

"Neighborhood 20 is a neighborhood where all students need to be bused to school, and that is geographically closest to Western Avenue Elementary School. Due to this and the smaller number of students residing there, the task force considered it as a distinct neighborhood without the need or possibility of changing its overall boundaries," the report said.

School Board member Mary Stith said she supported the task force recommendation, in part because it's in keeping with the neighborhood schools concept. 

"What this did for me is reaffirm that families want to maintain the neighhorhood status," she said. "Let's try to keep the neighborhood intact."

School Board members also emphasized that their intent is to keep Area 20 associated with Western Avenue School for a long time—perhaps for perpetuity. Students from that neighborhood had been moved to Harrison Street School in 1988, then to Coultrap Elementary School in 1994, then to Williamsburg Elementary School in 2008.

School Board Vice President Kelly Nowak supported the task force decision but said she was concerned about class sizes at Western Avenue School for fourth- and fifth-graders.

According to the report, the projections would be about 26 or 27 students per classroom for fourth grade and 28 students per classroom for fifth grade at Western Avenue School.

Nowak said she would advocate for a third section at Western Avenue School if those projections pan out. A third section would require hiring additional staff, but would also significantly lower the number of students per classroom.

School Board member Matt Henry, who did not seek re-election and was attending his last meeting Monday night, said the Area 20 move likely would be the first in a series of steps the district would have to take in the next several years in order to balance classroom sizes and student enrollment at Geneva grade schools.

"What we’re trying to do is look into the future," he said. "You just have to do what is right for the district as a whole."

Bill Wilson, who has served for 12 years and was re-elected to a fourth term, said this move is a way to balance enrollment proactively rather than waiting until just before the school year to make a decision.

"There are going to be issues where late enrollment will have to add sections to schools, and that’s what precipitated this discussion," he said. "We were adding sections the week before school started ... It causes chaos at schools when you (make adjustments) at the last minute."

School Board President Mark Grosso said the boundary change for Area 20 was "one of the tougher if not the toughest" decision he's had to make during his four years on the board.

"Just walking and sitting on this side of the table, it's hard to describe the awesome responsibility you feel," he said. "When we make decisions, we don’t make them lightly."

Download the movie