I am a Seawell parent and Parkside neighborhood resident. In three of the four redistricting plans proposed by the CHCCS Redistricting Committee, our parcel 074A will be redistricted to the new Northside Elementary School downtown, which is the fourth farthest school from our geographic area.

We understand that redistricting has to happen but it makes no sense to create a satellite that takes over 200 kids past three closer schools (Seawell, Estes Hill, and Morris Grove). Our segment is the third-largest segment and it’s the only large segment that will be moved away from the neighborhood school. While all other segments near MLK and I-40 are assigned to either Seawell, Morris Grove, or Estes Hill, we’re the only segment in our geographic area redistricted to Northside. Our children are not being treated equally with children from other communities.

Plans 1, 2 and 3 not only have implications on the time spent on the bus for young kids who will have to leave even earlier in the mornings than now, but also have enormous impact on the amount of money the town needs to spend on busing 200 kids for much longer commute on every school day.

Per the assistant superintendent, the goal of restricting is to draw the lines so as to keep every school under capacity while preserving every school’s walk zone, without breaking up individual neighborhoods – while simultaneously minimizing the cost of transportation or the amount of time kids have to spend on a bus – while simultaneously maintaining socioeconomic diversity at each school and ideally keeping standardized test scores roughly equal from one school to another.

This goal is NOT achieved and reflected on the current plans 1, 2 and 3 for the children of segment 074A.

Lijun Chen

Chapel Hill

Unfair treatment

I am a Seawell parent living in Northwood. I strongly protest the misrepresentation of Ms. Tina CoyneSmith in your Nov. 28 story. It mischaracterized her point and to great detriment. Parents in Seawell elementary know that Ms. Tina ConyeSmith has been an active volunteer, passionate leader and pillar of the community.

I also want to use this opportunity to strongly protest redistricting plans 1, 2 and 3, in which Segment 074A is chosen for redistricting despite its comparatively less convenient geographical location in CHCCS.

The children of parcel 074A are being treated differently from other children in the district. No other child will be sent past three schools (Seawell, Estes, Morris Grove) to the fourth farthest away one, Northside. It seems that kids in our neighborhood are being penalized for being a large strong neighborhood, for having good test scores and SES scores that work well for achieving balance.

To remove Parcel 074A from Seawell will destroy the volunteer base and the leadership of PTA and SIT committees. Currently, the SIT chair, SIT team save one, and all four PTA key leadership roles live in parcel 074A.

I am an active volunteer in Seawell. My family and my employer donate to Seawell generously. Now with the perception that my neighborhood is treated differently, I do not know if I can make similar commitments to Northside.

Parcel 074A has been the long-standing heart and soul of Seawell. If the reward for creating a great school is to then jettison the people who made it better to other schools, then parents, neighbors and families are going to be less inclined to make any real investment in their public schools.

Jing Fu

Chapel Hill

Plan will waste gas

My name is Caroline Chen, and I am 8. I am a third grader at Seawell Elementary School. I am writing to you about the redistricting. I heard they plan to move many students who live in Parkside, Northwoods and Larkspur neighborhoods to Northside Elementary School. I think this is crazy.

1. Well, why? I mean, Seawell is the closest, and to get to Northside takes at least five more minutes by car. But I don’t know how much longer by bus. Also, to get to school on time would make us have to wake up at about 6 a.m.

2. We will waste lots of money on gas. It is about three miles more to get there, which means six miles to get there and come back. And with more than 200 students, there will be a lot of buses and cars and a lot of gas.

3. Why ruin the beauty of nature by causing so much air pollution? The polar ice caps are already melting, and why make it worse?

4. I suppose our house values will become lower, and, soon enough, not many people will want to live here.

I hope this makes sense.

Caroline Chen

Chapel Hill

Another life taken

I was in high school at Durham Academy when Eve Carson was murdered on the streets of Chapel Hill. I am crushed now as a sophomore at Elon University four years later to read that another life was ripped from my hometown. Faith Danielle Hedgepeth’s murder is a burning reminder of how even in the most solid communities, evil finds a way to take its toll again and again.

At one moment our community can all be cheering for the same team or as with Faith’s tribe, be united in the achievements of an individual, but just as quickly these communities are tested. Again we as North Carolinians must reach out to one another to morn and share strength, love and hope.

Often we see the differences more than the similarities in life. We are trained to break apart, separate, and categorize people by their race, gender and social class. It seems that it takes suffering together to see how closely knit we truly are. The gap she left behind may not be as wide for some of us but we all stand together looking into the darkness that her light once illuminated. Her murder created a hole that must be filled with unity and solidarity and we must move forward as a deeply interdependent society that cares for one another, no matter what category it is one might fall into.

Hampton Smith

Chapel Hill

Denied clean water

Imaging my surprise when reading the Burlington paper to find out that Orange County is going to pay for water and sewer along I-85 near Buckhorn road. Great, they need it.

But how about the people who live next to Chapel Hill, in a small section that has been denied clean water for over 30 years. Not Rogers Road; they called on the NAACP to get them clean water, but their neighbors on Billabong and Merin Road that have contaminated wells.

These people have had to pay additional taxes to live in the Chapel Hill planning district and Chapel Hill-Carrboro school district. Yet still they are denied water clean enough to drink.

It is not fair that people are treated unfairly in Orange County just because someone does not like you.

Janice Putnam

Hillsborough