CBG relocated to Tomahawk Middle school

As concerned citizens of Chesterfield County and parents of children in the Center Based Gifted Program whose elementary schools feed into the CBG site located at Manchester Middle School (MMS), we respectfully submit this petition to request that the entire Manchester program be relocated to either Tomahawk Creek Middle School (TCMS) or Swift Creek Middle School (SCMS) in the fall of 2008.  With the current feeder pattern, the home middle schools involved are Bailey Bridge, Swift Creek, Providence, Manchester, and Falling Creek.  The following are factors contributing to the current push for relocation:

I.                   Manchester Middle is no longer centrally located with respect to where the eligible CBG children live. 

a.       Currently 70% of the CBG children at Manchester live in the western part of the county. 

b.      This raises safety concerns with the distance children are being bussed in heavy traffic on Hull Street (avg. 12 miles), often with 3 children to a seat. 

c.       The current county bussing arrangements require children as young as 10 years old to catch a bus with high school students between 6:10 and 6:50 am, to then catch a shuttle bus at a high school which typically departs for MMS at 7:20.  Many busses arrive at the middle school between 7:40 and 7:55 leaving the kids to entertain themselves in the MMS cafeteria for up to 45 minutes before school begins.  

II.                Educational Needs are impacted by the current location at Manchester Middle School. 

a.       Overcrowding is and will continue to be a problem at Manchester.

b.      Many of the CBG classes are in trailers, many with no internet access, bathroom facilities, or anything that shelters children from rain, snow, and the cold as they move among trailers without coats (which are not permitted).

c.       The extended school day resulting from transportation issues limits the time available for non school related extracurricular activities and homework.

d.      Participation in the middle school%u2019s after school sports, clubs, and evening activities are limited because of the school%u2019s distance from people%u2019s homes.  Arranging car pools to accommodate the schedules for school activities is difficult due to the lack of neighboring families and the distance to school.

e.       A percentage of parents choose to remove their eligible children from the program and send them to their home middle school because of distance or demographics, even though they acknowledge the impact on their education.  (Please see many of the comments by those who have signed the petition)

III.             Alleviation of Overcrowding

a.       MMS currently will be the only middle school whose overcrowding issues are not alleviated by the current redistricting plan.  At the status quo, they will have over 20 trailers, will be at 113% capacity and will have almost 200 students more than the school%u2019s capacity.  All other middle school programs will be close or under capacity with minimal trailers (if any).

b.      Depending on the adoption of the redistricting committee%u2019s recommendation, there will be excess capacity at either TCMS or SCMS.

c.       Excess seats could be filled by the CBG program.

d.      CBG students would be more centrally located at their middle school.

IV.             Students who are together in the CBG program in elementary school should optimally go into the same middle school.  Peer relationships are especially important at this stage of development.  Losing contact with friends as a result of feeding into different middle schools only increases the anxiety already present because of the nature of the shift from elementary school to middle school.

If you agree with the above points, please lend your support to the committee organizing to present our case to the board.  Sign the petition and add any comments regarding your concerns, ideas and/or current or past experience that would be relevant.

In addition to signing the petition, we encourage you to appear at the 2 public sessions where comments will be heard by our School Board.  Please mark your calendars for February 12, 2008, at the School Board office.  Each person wishing to speak about the redistricting will have 3 minutes to make comments to the Board.  You must call ahead at 748-1497 to be placed on the docket.  Additionally, on February 25th the School Board has a public comment session at Manchester High School at 7:00.  You will not need to call in advance for this one and we encourage you to attend these meetings and voice your support for our children and what is best for their educational needs.

Thanks for your support!