South Portland decides where to send students after closing elementary school

Families in South Portland now know where their children will attend elementary school after the closure of James O. Kaler Elementary School was finalized earlier this year.

The South Portland School Board has approved new attendance boundaries that will redistribute the 132 students previously assigned to Kaler among the district's four remaining elementary schools beginning next academic year. The breakdown is as follows: 54 students will move to Frank I. Brown Elementary School, 30 to Helena H. Dyer Elementary School, 25 to Waldo T. Skillin Elementary School, and 23 to Dora L. Small Elementary School. No other attendance zones in the district will change.

The redistricting affects specific neighborhoods in South Portland. Families living in Cash Corner between Lincoln and Main streets and Broadway, and in Pleasantdale between North Kelsey Street and the intersection of Broadway and Evans Street, will be assigned to Brown. Families in Pleasantdale between Morse and South Kelsey streets will attend Small. The portion of Cash Corner between Rumery Street and Broadway will fall within Dyer's zone. Students residing on the side streets off Main Street in Thornton Heights will attend Skillin.

Board members were initially divided on the proposal, with some raising concerns that children would not be able to attend their nearest school and that certain neighborhoods would be split between different zones. After additional deliberation, the board held a second vote on the plan. Only board member Daniel Feller voted against the measure.

Vice Chair Tyler Smith called the decision "the best option out of bad options."

Families who prefer a school other than their newly assigned one will have the option of applying for a waiver. According to board member Claire Holman, the waiver process is intended to accommodate the preferences of individual Kaler families. Assistant Superintendent Johanna Prince said waivers are typically reviewed by district administrators and, if approved, are valid for one year. Parents who receive waivers are generally required to provide their own transportation rather than using district buses. Prince noted that the district usually has between 10 and 20 active waivers at any given time.

Board members indicated that Kaler families should be given priority consideration in the waiver process and suggested that the district explore providing transportation for those families.

Prince said administrators worked to keep siblings together and to preserve some peer and neighborhood connections in making the assignments. The district also aimed to balance demographic ratios across the four schools, including the proportions of students of color, students from lower socioeconomic households, students with Individual Education Plans, and multilingual students.

Under the new boundaries, each of the four schools will enroll between 32% and 56% students from lower socioeconomic households. During the current school year, that range spans from 24% to 58%. All four schools will serve double-digit percentages of multilingual students.

Skillin will continue to have the smallest classes, with an average of about 17 students per classroom. District-wide, average class sizes for kindergarten through second grade will rise from about 17 to 19 students, while class sizes for third through fifth grade will increase from about 18 to 20 students. The four elementary schools are projected to operate at 90% to 95% capacity.

Over the coming weeks, the district plans to work with a school bus logistics team to develop a transportation plan covering the entire district.