By Chris Cannon
FRANKLIN, Tenn. - School board members for Franklin Special School District have a lot of work ahead of them in the coming weeks. They have the task of choosing a plan to diversify the district's seven schools.
The district's students come from within the city of Franklin, not the county. It is an area with a good deal of diversity.
"But when you look at each school, the diversity at each school, the diversity had gotten out of balance," according to Dr. David Snowden, director of schools.
To try to align the socio-economics within some schools, the board created a School Equity Task Force. Six groups were charged with developing six different plans to achieve the desired diversity inside the district's seven schools.
"The board felt like it was a good time to look at that and try to balance that out, and have each school resemble the demographics of the entire district," Snowden explained.
Board members got their first look at the six plans during their June 3rd meeting.
"And they are evaluating those plans. We've had public input on those plans. And the board will begin to discuss those at a work session on the 25th," according to Snowden.
Many parents have already spoken out about the idea of redistricting for diversity.
"You may think you may be helping, but you may be hurting," parent Roger Conatser told school board members Monday night.
Conatser does not like the way the board is going about the change, and he feels the people this affects the most have not been included.
"Have they done focus-groups on the Hispanic community? Say, ‘Yeah we'd like to do that,' or ‘We'd really like to stay here; we feel more comfortable here,' There's nothing wrong with feeling comfortable here," according to Conatser.
Any changes made would not affect the district's seven schools and 3,800 students until the 2012-2013 school year.
email: ccannon@newschannel5.com
School board members for Franklin Special School District have task of choosing a plan to diversify the district's seven schools.
