Viewing the “possible change map” you recently published for the Cape Henlopen School District’s elementary school enrollment zones brings to light something I’ve disliked for more than 40 years: that odd-shaped carve-in at the top left of the district map. Why do children in Lincoln along the Fleatown Road area get sent all the way down to Milton when there is an elementary school quite close to them? In fact, all of us in that area are much closer to the Milford schools. Many of us work, shop and worship in Milford, but the kids won’t even see their school friends on a trip to their closest town. And the long bus rides they endure to get to school only worsen as they age and are sent to Lewes, while they are so much closer to Milford!
The map also points out another oddity: kids who live miles farther south in Ellendale and even the parts of Milton that are to the right of the carve-in are bused up to the Milford district, just not our kids in that one section. This has never made any sense, and it surely looks gerrymandered.
The district lines drawn in the 1970s are obsolete since schools have been built and/or closed and housing has sprung up all over the place. I would like to see an effort made to have children assigned to the district where the schools are closest to them. The shorter bus rides would be better for the kids, and it wouldn’t hurt to save on the costs of running the buses either.
But that one oddity, seen quite clearly on the district map, has always just looked wrong, and I’d like to see it get fixed.
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