BARLING, Ark. — The Fort Smith Public Schools is considering changing where some high school students attend school because Northside High School is over capacity by nearly 500 students of overcrowding at one of the schools.
Monday night, the district held a meeting to hear from those possibly impacted by this.
"What would it look like if Barling's attendance area was shifted to Southside," Fort Smith Public Schools Deputy Superintendent, Marty Mahan rhetorically asked during a meeting with Barling residents.
This would move hundreds of Barling students who've been zoned to attend high school in north Fort Smith for decades.
Fort Smith Schools Board of Education member Dalton Person is pushing for this change. "In my mind, it's an easily identified solution."
"Geographically, this just makes sense," Person said.
Before any action is taken, the district heard from parents.
"I feel like we're kind of getting the short end of the stick because we're going to be forced to go to Southside, and we live in Barling and we continue to live in Barling because we want our children to go to Northside," one parent said.
The district says if the change happens, Barling students who want to go to Northside still could, Fort Smith buses just won't take them there.
"Transportation is a critical component of what we do in the district," said Mahan. "But it's also a component that's stretched really thin."
Person says the rezoning would help this problem. "It would make the bus routes shorter. Southside is just closer than Northside from Barling."
He also says this will help overworked Northside staff.
"Have you asked the students yet," asked a parent.
The district says they haven't asked students directly. But would like to hear from them and might send out a survey.
"Each one of my kids absolutely adores the school they are going to and adore Northside, a parent said. "And now, all of a sudden they might not have
Person tells 5NEWS if this plan were to go into effect, he would try to phase the swap. That way no current high school students would be impacted.
The board of education will revisit the idea at its next board meeting.
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