Residents urge Dublin City Schools to prioritize safety, walkability as redistricting resumes

Residents and community groups told the Dublin City Schools Board of Education on Monday that proposed boundary changes threaten student safety and everyday access to school activities, and urged the board to score any new maps against earlier options.

Several speakers during the meeting’s public participation period pressed the board to keep Griselle feeder patterns intact and warned against sending students across Riverside Drive and an unlit bridge to more distant schools. "Why send kids seven miles away across a river and down an unlit, high-speed road when they live only a few miles from Jerome?" a neighborhood resident said during public comment, asking the board to evaluate travel-safety impacts before altering assignments.

Why it matters: Board members and staff said redistricting is intended to balance enrollment while preserving local priorities; residents countered that proximity and a safe route to school are essential for families who rely on walking or biking to access after-school activities.

At the meeting Shaqula Ali, who identified herself as a Girl Scouts of Ohio’s Heartland board member and a Dublin parent, urged the district to maintain free meeting space for Girl Scout troops, arguing that rental fees could reduce equitable access for families and the district’s volunteer base. "Free access to space ensures that our program maintains equitable and accessible programming to all girls regardless of economic background," Ali said.

Tracy Borquin described a recent city pedestrian-and-bicycle school safety plan and urged the board to factor those improvements into assignment decisions. She said many families in the Bristol Commons and nearby neighborhoods rely on safe walking and biking routes for practices and events, adding that some neighborhoods are already within two miles of a school but would be rerouted under proposed options.

Board response and next steps: Board leaders said the district will host a special meeting on March 23 featuring Planning Next and Fallon Research, which ran the focus groups and public polling; the special meeting will include consultant presentations but no public participation, and the district plans to post those materials afterward for public review. The board asked staff to post the consultants’ reports "for the public so the public can have that," ensuring community access to the research used to shape map options.

Policy and process notes: Several speakers asked the board to follow board policy 5120 and to compare any newly proposed maps to Map 1 and Map 3 developed previously. The district noted the original map work cost "several hundred thousand dollars," and that prior contracted map options did not place neighborhoods such as Tartan and North Mirfield at Sciota High School, an example cited by speakers as evidence that some contested reassignments lack precedent.

What’s next: The board said it will post the consultants’ presentations and related materials after the March 23 session, and that public participation will resume at regular April meetings. No formal boundary changes were approved at the March meeting.