A standing-room audience of more than 250 parents and teachers — the biggest crowd at a Davis school board meeting in recent memory — packed Harper Junior High on Thursday evening for a four-hour discussion of possible changes to South Davis’ two elementary schools.

Montgomery Elementary, which opened in 2001, and Pioneer Elementary, which is coming up on its 50th anniversary, both rank as high-performing schools in the state’s Academic Performance Index, with overall scores over 800 points.

However, as Associate Superintendent Clark Bryant noted as he presented the findings of the South Davis Enrollment Committee, which has studied the issue over the past nine months, “We’re not hitting (that) mark for all our students, and that is not an issue just for Montgomery Elementary, but districtwide.”

Bryant outlined statistics that showed white students at Montgomery scoring over 900 points on the API as a group, while students from a Latino background, from families with a low socioeconomic status or who are English learners score about 200 points lower as a group.

That trend — often described as the “achievement gap” — is present at every school in the Davis district. But several factors have caused the gap to stand out in sharper relief at Montgomery, moving that school into Program Improvement status under federal No Child Left Behind legislation several years ago.

Those factors include a declining white student population and a rising Latino population in the Montgomery attendance area, reinforced by boundary changes after the closure of Valley Oak Elementary a few years ago.

Some white students also leave Montgomery beginning in fourth grade to attend GATE (Gifted and Talented Education) or Spanish Immersion classes at other campuses. Montgomery hosts Spanish Immersion only in grades K-3.

As a result, 42 percent of Montgomery families, the highest percentage in the Davis district, rank as “low socioeconomic status.” That compares with 13 percent for Pioneer, the lowest in the district. Montgomery also has the highest percentage of students who are English learners (35 percent), while Pioneer has one of the lowest (13 percent).

Bryant outlined a range of options for Montgomery, including expanding Spanish Immersion to grades K-6, starting a “dual immersion” (Spanish and English) program or bringing in a GATE strand. Another option would divide enrollment between Montgomery and Pioneer by grade rather than by neighborhood.

Parents and teachers from both schools then offered their feedback in remarks that were sometimes intense and emotional but generally polite and respectful.

Librarian Nora Brazil, who works at both schools, and Montgomery teacher Cheri Burau read a statement signed by Montgomery staff saying, “Our primary concern is segregation, and how different this school’s enrollment looks from the rest of the district. Existing district policies have led to unintentional inequality.”

The statement noted that while Montgomery is “a high-ranking school (academically) when compared to others with similar populations … an imbalanced school population is never in the best interest of the community. … The status quo is unacceptable, we implore you as board members to take action.”

Reath Snyder, a teacher at Pioneer, advised the board that changes at Montgomery could impact other campuses.

“When you move one group of students it affects the whole district,” Snyder said. “As more kids are pulled out of the general education program, you are left with a concentrated population in general ed that may have a different type of life experience or learning challenges than those students that go into special programs.”

Adrienne Meredith, a member of the South Davis Enrollment Committee, said “the district should mix students from high-income and low-income schools,” in accordance with federal civil rights law. Meredeth said that while such changes might “be controversial in our community,” she supports “changes that are in accord with federal diversity guidance.”

Betsy Hyder, president of the Pioneer PTA, advised that a recent poll of Pioneer parents found that many would consider moving their child to a different school if enrollment at Pioneer and Montgomery was combined and then reorganized, sending South Davis students in grades K-3 to one campus and those in grades 4-6 to another.

“Only 11 percent (of Pioneer parents responding to the poll) agree with the idea of splitting, and 65 percent would consider leaving,” Hyder said. She described Pioneer as “stable, established … what Pioneer has taken time to build, it is not something that can be given away.”

Lisa Schwartz, a Montgomery parent, recalled that she attended the old West Davis Elementary (K-3) and West Davis Intermediate schools (4-6) and added, “I survived!” She described the difficulty many Montgomery teachers face when they need to recruit parents to drive students on a field trip, because not enough can take time off during the day or have a car available during school hours.

She added that “when you have 14 students who are English learners in a classroom and you are trying to teach  the whole class, it is an uphill struggle. Our teachers are wonderful, but their plates are so full. The school cannot continue the way it is.”

The school board directed Superintendent Winfred Roberson to do additional research — including an examination of a possible dual immersion program, or expansion of Spanish Immersion at Montgomery to grades K-6, among other options.

Roberson will bring that information to the school board, perhaps as early as April, at which point the discussion will continue.

 — Reach Jeff Hudson at [email protected] or (530) 747-8055.

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