By Kyle Roberts
RUSTON, La. — The Lincoln Parish School Board has released a detailed map of the proposed zoning areas for the PreK – Fifth Grade neighborhood elementary schools in the Ruston school district that may be brought to a board vote in the near future.
The proposed lines will be can be seen in the attached image below for the respective elementary schools. According to the school board, Highway 167 divides the east and west zones until to the railroad tracks south of the interstate, and then it will move to Farmerville street and head south (This will separate Glen View and Hill Crest and then Cypress Springs and Ruston Elementary).
I-20 separates the north and south on the east side between Hill Crest and Ruston Elementary, and the railroad tracks divide the north and south on the west side between Glen View and Cypress Springs.
Following Tuesday night’s presentation from Trotter Hunt of Hunt, Guillot & Associates, the board has now also released its own survey, which can be found by clicking this link. The survey will ask if you agree with the proposal and leaves room for additional comments.
“(This study) is part of what we told the community we would do when we passed the $17.5 million bond measure this past year,” LPSB Superintendent Ricky Durrett said said Tuesday night regarding the proposal. “We want to make sure this is equal access for everybody, because if you have four elementary schools (in Ruston) just like at Simsboro, Dubach and Choudrant, we’re going to offer all the same things at every school no matter what.”
Back in 2012, the Lincoln Parish School Board split the four elementary schools into K-2 and 3-5 hubs, with Highway 167 being the primary dividing line, as part of an order from the Justice Department to desegrate the Ruston school district.
Following the implementation, Lincoln Parish formally achieved “unitary status,” meaning race can longer be used as a determinent factor for any decisions made by the district. Durrett believes that the city will continue to grow with the coming of Buc-ee’s and the Radiance Technology microchip plant and anticipates that the schools will not have the same stark divide in demographics prior to the Justice Department order.
“We believe going back to neighborhood schools will be the best option at this point, given the growth we are expecting,” Durrett said in a call Wednesday. “We want work to make sure that there is a strong neighborhood school in each neighborhood as new employees look to relocate to our city. And we believe neighborhood schools provide our current families the ability to connect to that school with students being there for seven years. We feel that the family would connect with teachers, staff and administrators and feel a sense of ownership with their community schools.”
Durrett added that the proposed zone size for Ruston Elementary reflects the available classroom capacity of the school’s campus.
The school board has not set a date for its members to vote on this proposal. Because this will not require any new tax or capital outlay money, this proposal will not be voted on by the public.
