SALISBURY – Schools officials in Wicomico County this week agreed to move 150 students from Bennett Middle School next year in an effort to balance middle school enrollment.
On Tuesday, the Wicomico County school board voted unanimously to approve Superintendent Donna Hanlin’s recommendation that 150 students from Bennett Middle be moved to either Salisbury Middle School or Wicomico Middle School as part of an initiative to alleviate overcrowding at the facility.
The state-rated capacity for Bennett Middle is 1,114, a number the school is projected to surpass in the coming school year due to a large number of incoming sixth-grade students.
“We currently have what we call an enrollment bubble in the fifth grade,” Hanlin said. “We have no control over where growth occurs in our community, and that growth has occurred in the Fruitland area. So the students who are coming out of that enrollment bubble in the fifth grade are moving into Bennett Middle School’s district.”
Hanlin said the school system had already received complaints from parents regarding crowded hallways and high teacher-student ratios. Currently, Bennett Middle has an average class size of 26 students.
“In looking at what we have determined as our enrollment projections, if we don’t do something we are going to have some major issues,” she said.
Hanlin explained approximately 90 students living to the northwest of the Wicomico River who attended Pemberton Elementary School would be moved to Salisbury Middle School, while an additional 60 students living to the northeast of Snow Hill Road would be moved to Wicomico Middle School in the upcoming school year. The adjustment, she explained, would give affected students a shorter commute and smaller class sizes.
Hanlin added that rising seventh- and eighth-grade students at Bennett Middle School will have the option to remain at Bennett Middle if they can provide their own transportation.
“I have adjusted my recommendation to the board to include the grandfathering of students who are not only going into the eighth grade next year, but who are also going into the seventh grade,” she said. “Students who have started at Bennett Middle, if they choose to request permission to continue to go to Bennett Middle, will be able to make that request.”
Parent Percy Fields, however, argued that without transportation, many grandfathered students would have no way of getting to and from school, and therefore would not be able to stay at Bennett Middle. He requested the school board provide transportation to these students.
“That is a serious issue that I hope the board considers,” he said.
Salisbury Councilwoman April Jackson noted Hanlin’s recommendation could change demographics at each of the middle schools. She said she was concerned the schools would become resegregated.
“I’m very much concerned about the community because it is a community that I live in,” she said.
While Hanlin acknowledged potential demographic shifts, she assured the community her recommendation would impact the least number of students.
“I have no intention of resegregating our schools,” she said. “I want what’s in the best interest of our students and I want our enrollments to be balanced, both class size-wise and demographically. That is my intention.”
Following the discussion, the board voted unanimously, with President Donald Fitzgerald absent, to approve Hanlin’s recommendation.
Hanlin said the school system would continue to explore transportation options for grandfathered students at Bennett Middle.
“We want those who want to attend there to not have barriers to being able to do that,” she said.
Hanlin’s recommendation to adjust school boundaries is just one of the ways the school system plans to address enrollment imbalances. Her initiative also calls for expanding signature programs, such as Project Lead the Way, to the middle schools. Middle school students would have the opportunity to choose where they go to school based on their academic interests.
“My preference would have been that by offering such signature programs across the county … that it would solve the enrollment balancing problem, but it doesn’t,” she said. “It’s not soon enough to address this (overcrowding) issue.”
