At least one parent living in Arbor Oaks subdivision wants the school board to rezone to allow her children to attend Heritage Middle School, but school officials said they’re not budging.

Superintendent Denia Reese said the subdivision did not exist when the zoning classifications were created two years ago, but the board had made a commitment to stick to its initial designations. Besides that, she said, Heritage Middle is at capacity with nearly 200 more students than either Ringgold Middle School or Lakeview Middle School.

“If we rezoned any right now, it would be the other way (to allow fewer students to attend Heritage),” she said.

Speaking on behalf of parent Melissa Payne, who said she has a 9-year-old child and an 11-year-old child, Fort Oglethorpe attorney Robert Stultz asked the board on Tuesday to add Arbor Oaks to the Heritage zone.

He said children in the adjacent Old Mill Trace neighborhood are zoned for Heritage and that it’s closer for Arbor Oaks children to attend Heritage than Lakeview.

“The children that are in that subdivision (play with friends in Old Mill Trace), but they can’t go to school with them,” he said.

Zoning has become an increasingly more talked-about issue with the preparations for the opening of Heritage High School in August 2008. The zoning for Heritage High is the same as for Heritage Middle, but officials said several subdivisions have been built since the original zoning plans.

School board chairman Don Dycus said the board won’t consider rezoning requests at this time. Stultz said he plans to seek more information related to allowing exceptions so that out-of-zone students can attend Heritage Middle. At least one out-of-zone student was enrolled before the board decided earlier this year to stop allowing any more exceptions.

School board member Jane Everett was absent from the meeting.

Maintenance issues

Damon Raines, the director of facilities and maintenance, said the second phase of work at Ringgold High School is moving quickly. The $2.7 million project involves creating more administrative space as well as a new auxiliary gymnasium and relocating a parking lot.

Raines also said charges that the school board violated a county ordinance by improperly disposing of an old house on the Heritage High building site were dropped. A house originally believed to contain asbestos was buried on property the school system owned, but Raines said the exact location wasn’t on the actual Heritage High building area and that the house did not contain hazardous materials after all.

Reese said construction workers buried it to prevent children from playing in it and getting hurt.

“It was all done in the name of student safety,” she said. “In the end, that was the reason for even addressing the issue.”

At a work session on Aug. 28, Raines noted the need for more custodial staff with the increased square footage at Ringgold High and other schools that were remodeled recently.

“My concern is the amount of square footage that we’ve added and not being able to address it,” he said. “We’re stretching out staff as thin as we can stretch them at this point.”

Officials said the superintendent will make a decision on hiring more staff when needed. The requests Raines said he believes are absolutely necessary add up to another $32,943.

In other business at the meeting on Sept. 4, the board voted to change Reese’s contract to allow $6,200 for mileage each year rather than $3,950. The new contract also provides for a 2 percent pay increase in the 2009 school year if Reese meets three goals this year.

The goals are 1) developing a graduation task force designed to improve the graduation rate following SACS recommendations, 2) overseeing the development of a three-year strategic plan for the school system to be finished by June, and 3) “providing leadership and direction in facilities and maintenance by addressing the need for new schools, opening new schools, and maintaining equitable facilities in existing schools.”

Officials said the superintendent must still perform all the other duties she has been assigned before the change in her contract, but her pay raise will depend on completing the three goals.

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