Beverly Gardens Elementary will gain students living in Wright-Patterson Air Force Base housing, while the Brantwood and Stevenson schools will see enrollment drops next school year as part of the first Mad River redistricting plan since 2006, officials said. Records show Saville will see no change in student numbers.
The move is needed due to new homes being built or proposed in two developments in the district’s northern end in Dayton and Riverside, according to Superintendent Chad Wyen.
Regardless of the homes’ municipality, “all will be within Mad River Local Schools,” Wyen said in an email. “Both of these developments are within the boundaries of Brantwood ... and would create a situation that would cause the building to exceed capacity.”
The redistricting of the K-4 buildings approved by the Mad River’s board of education this week is designed to keep numbers similar in all elementaries, board President Cristina Pickle said.
“Our goal is to balance the student numbers we have now and leave enough room for growth,” Pickle said in an email.
“Overcrowding has a direct and often severe impact on our school buildings that can often disrupt teaching and class electives due to space for educational basics,” she added. “Redistricting our elementary schools will ensure that our buildings have appropriate space for instructional needs and all-around learning.”
Pickle said the board “believes that redistricting will provide greater equity across the schools by balancing class sizes and ensuring comparable programs, facilities and staffing for all elementary students.”
Currently, Beverly Gardens’ enrollment is 312, Stevenson’s 315, Saville’s 360 and Brantwood’s 383, district records show.
With the changes, Stevenson’s would be 289 and the others all in the 357-360 range, according to Mad River documents.
The shifts will help create space at Brantwood, where students in the new housing attend, Wyen said. They will also allow all students living in Wright-Patterson Air Force Base housing — The Prairies — to go to Beverly Gardens rather than splitting them between that school and Stevenson, he added.
Meanwhile, the plan calls for students who live in McMahon’s and Crown Village mobile home parks now going to Brantwood to attend Stevenson, Wyen said.
Decisions on what staff transfers will occur will be made in the coming months, and parents of students changing schools will be mailed letters, he added.
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