Houston BOE presents middle school rezoning proposal

WARNER ROBINS -- Some of Houston County's middle school students could have a different school next year, according to a proposal presented by the school board at an information session Thursday.

The plan would affect the zones of Bonaire, Huntington, Northside and Thomson middle schools and would take effect for the 2016-17 school year if passed by a board vote on Jan. 12. One of the main purposes of the rezoning is to better balance the county's enrollment numbers and correct "overpopulation" at Bonaire.

"We had to start looking at contingencies to relieve Bonaire Middle School," said Superintendent Mark Scott.

Bonaire Middle had 1,010 students at the last count in October, about 150 more students than any other middle school in Houston County.

The proposal would eliminate a non-contiguous section of the school's attendance zone that lies in the northern part of the county, mostly in the area bordered by Ga. 247, Watson Boulevard and North Davis Drive. Those students would be divided among Huntington and Northside middle schools, currently two of the county's least populated schools at 719 and 677 students, respectively.

In addition, some students would be moved from Northside to Huntington to better line up the middle schools for Warner Robins and Northside high schools.

"That allows middle school kids to build relationships and carry those relationships into high school," Scott said.

The meeting was held at Huntington Middle, and the border between that school's zone and the remaining Bonaire Middle School zone was the subject of criticism from a group of parents. Residents of Governor's Estate Subdivision off of Old Perry Road in Bonaire again expressed concern that their children are zoned for Huntington while homes across the road from the neighborhood's entrance are zoned for Bonaire at the middle school level.

"It would seem like you would want to fix as many incongruities as you could in one zoning," said parent Matt Glen.

Scott noted that such issues are bound to happen in any rezoning but that it wasn't feasible to make any changes that would add students to the zone for Bonaire.

"Our intent is to relieve the overcrowding at Bonaire Middle School," he said.

The parents also had concerns with the fact that they voted for the District 5 board seat held by Helen Hughes, even though past board materials didn't list their schools as being in Hughes' district. Scott pointed out that those lists only reflected which schools lie within the voting district but that board members worked as a whole to represent the entire county.

Board Chairman Fred Wilson said the lists, which are no longer on the board's brochure, had been a source of confusion for him when he first got elected more than 20 years ago.

"That's misleading to most people because when I came on the board, I thought the same thing," Wilson said.

Full zoning information is available on the school system's website at www.hcbe.net.

To contact writer Jeremy Timmerman, call 744-4331 or find him on Twitter@MTJTimm.

This story was originally published December 10, 2015 at 7:20 PM with the headline "Houston BOE presents middle school rezoning proposal ."