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Operations committee reviews three May River-area rezoning options; largest plan would move more than 1,500 students
Summary
Facilities staff presented three attendance-zone options to fix neighborhood "donut holes," balance capacity and reduce long bus routes. Option 1 is a minimal change (moves 771 students), Option 2 prioritizes transportation efficiency, and Option 3 is the most aggressive (would move 1,587 students). Transportation staff warned of route and driver implications; staff will take the options to the public and aim to finalize by October.
Carol, the district's facilities planner, presented three elementary/middle/high school rezoning options to the operations committee on April 9 that are intended to resolve geographic "donut holes," rebalance building capacities and shorten bus routes.
Carol said the maps use neighborhood-planning units and 45-day enrollment counts to show the likely impacts if the board adopts each option. She described Option 1 as a minimal-move scenario that resolves several immediate donut holes; Option 2 was developed by transportation staff to reduce route times and consolidate neighborhoods for operational efficiency; Option 3 aims to balance enrollments most aggressively and would move the most students.
"Under Option 1, the total number of students elementary, middle and high that would be moved is 771. Under Option 2 it is 57. Option 3 would be 1,587," Carol reported in the presentation. Committee members and transportation staff cautioned that the numbers reflect where students live (attendance zones) rather than actual current school enrollment choices, and that additional projects (for example locker-bay conversions that add 80 seats at Bluffton Middle) will alter capacity calculations.
Transportation staff explained the operational logic behind their preferred maps: shorter, neighborhood-based routes reduce one-way trip times (and the likelihood of extremely long trips across Okatie or Rose Hill) and create more compact routes that are easier to double or combine when driver shortages occur. Several board members urged staff to include a more dramatic alternative (referred to in discussion as an Option 4) that would realign certain high-school feeders; staff said they can develop that additional scenario for public review, but warned it would create tougher trade-offs and require broader outreach.
The committee discussed public engagement and timing: staff proposed public meetings focused on the south-of-Broad area in May and additional sessions in August, with a target to finalize any rezoning by October in keeping with policy timelines.
Next steps: staff will prepare public-facing materials for the three options (and a possible Option 4 variant if the board requests it), schedule outreach meetings this spring and summer, and return with refined maps and capacity analyses ahead of an October decision.
