SYLVANIA, OH (WTOL) - Parents will soon know where their kids will go to school for the 2018-19 school year.
The plan has been up in the air as different options for redistricting have been tossed around.
Sylvania school leaders are trying to mix the best features of two redistricting options.
On a mission to redistrict to relieve overcrowding, a 25-member task force was not able to decide between the final two options.
"There were aspects of [Option] 3 that were real popular. There were aspects of 3 that people didn't want and it was loud and proud, they didn't want it. And with [Option] 1, it was the same thing," said Adam Fineske, the Executive Director of Teaching and Learning for the district.
Over the next two weeks, a smaller team within the task force will work to blend the best from Option 1 with the best from Option 3.
It has already been decided that the current grade configurations will stay the same, elementary schools will remain K-5, junior highs will remain 6-8, and high schools will remain 9-12. Also, the current school buildings will remain: seven elementary schools, three junior highs, and two high schools.
Those were features of Option 1.
A feature from Option 3 that will remain in the final plan are direct feeder patterns. That means kids who start in one elementary school will stay with the same kids through graduation.
That's not happening now in Sylvania schools.
"It may not be 100 percent, but could there be less splitting in this new hybrid model? And I think we're going to be able to get that done," Fineske said.
Haley Borcherdt's two children are too young for school, but she has already thought about where they will attend.
When told about the features that have already been decided on, she said, "I like that they're not going to close down any schools, right? I like that it might create a little more community in the area, where kids can kind of stay with their friends as they grow up."
The small task force will present its hybrid model to the school board at a work session on May 8.
School leaders want to make this decision by the end of the school year, which is the end of May. The school board could vote on the final plan at their May 22 meeting.
