Medina City Schools pick up discussion of redistricting

MEDINA – Now that COVID is winding down, Superintendent Aaron Sable and school district officials have begun discussing redistricting once again.

“I’d like to reintroduce to the board, the redistricting and facilities process,” said Sable.

The district was ready to begin these discussions with the community before the pandemic but COVID put the whole process on hold.

Sable took some time to answer the “why” behind redistricting conversations at Monday’s School Board meeting.

“We take a look at what’s going on across the district in terms of our enrollment. We did have a study done on enrollment in the district and projections for the future. Our enrollment is staying pretty consistent … What we are seeing is a shift in our population,” said Sable.

While enrollment is staying consistent as a whole, newer buildings are seeing an increase in enrollment while older buildings are seeing a decrease. Redistricting could help even out enrollment and help solve some equity issues.

The district has been looking at equity across the buildings, especially in terms if social economics. Sable explained that having all the same kids from the same neighborhoods attending the same building(s) could lead to some inequities across the district including financial issues and the availability of resources. This could be anything from fundraising to parent volunteers to PTO.

“As a school district, we always make every effort to provide equal resources and equal access across the district but there are some things that are out of our control and we attempt to balance that out,” said Sable. “Redistricting may be a way for us to address some ways to do it.”

Redistricting could increase opportunities for students. If one building has more resources to another, that would provide more opportunities at one building but not at the other. This could lead to some buildings falling behind while others continue to gain new opportunities.

Redistricting could also help solve disparity in class sizes among the buildings. It would help even out class sizes across the board. Additionally, the stabilization of enrollment throughout the district will better help fulfill community needs, according to Sable.

Discussions on redistricting will continue moving forward as spring moves forward and the district continues looking into the issue.