As first reported in March, about 140 students who rode school buses to attend Langston Chapel Elementary School this year will go to Sallie Zetterower Elementary School when the new school year begins Aug. 3.

The move is intended to relieve crowding at Langston Chapel Elementary which, with 788 students this spring, is above 99 percent of its 792-student official capacity.

After Bulloch County Schools Superintendent Charles Wilson and Chief Operations Officer Paul Webb announced the plan two months ago, some Board of Education members expressed doubts. But Wilson said that the short-range zoning change would be an administrative decision, and recently told board members he would decide by their last meeting in April.

“The best thing for us to do at this point is to move forward,” Wilson told board members at Thursday night’s work session, held at Southeast Bulloch High School.

Minutes later, someone’s wireless phone went off with LCES Principal Dr. Shawn Haralson’s message to parents.

Both schools made automated calls and sent parents emails. A letter carrying the names of Haralson and SZES Principal Julie Mizell had gone home with students Thursday. These messages went to all parents, but a more specific letter is being mailed to the parents of just those students affected by the change, said Hayley Greene, public relations specialist for the Bulloch County Schools

Who is affected?

Buses that now take students to Langston Chapel Elementary School from specified areas around Fair Road, along Burkhalter Road between Fair and Rushing Roads, and around Lanier Road will go to the Sallie Zetterower Elementary School instead. Provided by the school system, a complete list of streets affected in their entirety, and of affected road sections by address number, appears with the digital version of this story at statesboroherald.com.

In addition to the 140 previously enrolled students, newly registered kindergarteners who live in the rezoned area and one prekindergarten class will be reassigned to Sallie Zetterower, school officials said.

Children whose parents want them to continue at Langston Chapel may do so, but parents will have to provide transportation.

Among the considerations weighed against the zoning decision, Haralson had said more time was needed to gauge the success of an innovation at his school. With central office permission, at midyear he hired certified teachers as long-term substitutes to provide a second teacher in kindergarten through second-grade classrooms.

Cited as an example of new school-level flexibility in spending, this was also a way to use state funding for additional teachers when the school had no more classrooms available. But at the school board’s first April meeting, Wilson said that the zoning change would not prevent Haralson from continuing to use this approach.

More zoning yet?

With expected growth from new enrollment, Langston Chapel Elementary may not have much room to spare even after the zoning shift, Greene said. The school system sees growth almost every year, and the southern edge of Statesboro is one of Bulloch County’s fastest growing areas.

At the beginning of this school year, more than 800 students showed up at Langston Chapel Elementary, topping 100 percent official capacity.

But the current Sallie Zetterower building, a replacement for the previous school of that name, opened in 2011 with extra classrooms to accommodate growth. As of this year, it is operating at 55 percent capacity, with 532 students, as stated in the letter to parents.

Wilson and Webb have described the shift in the transportation zone line between Langston and Sallie Z. as a response to an immediate need. More extensive rezoning involving other schools may be needed for the longer term, but will take more time and planning, Wilson said earlier this year.

Al Hackle may be reached at (912) 489-9458.