Rosa Lottery, District Map Cause Stress on Kids in 2 Neighborhoods

Glance through the winter-bare trees behind the homes in Kresson Woods beside James Johnson Elementary, and it’s not hard to spot the red siding of Rosa International Middle School through the woods beyond the Route 295 divide.

But a quirk of geography—Johnson is the only elementary school that sends students to both the district’s two other middle schools—combined with Rosa’s lottery system means a handful of kids in Haddontowne and Kresson Woods could be split from their classmates, and parents from the affected neighborhoods called on the school board to consider other options for Johnson students.

“These children are feeling very isolated,” said Michelle Williams. “It is a very, very tough time for kids making that transition to middle school.”

Williams’ daughter is one of several students who could be affected by the results of the annual lottery for Rosa and district mapping, which would put her into Carusi Middle School instead of Rosa, where she’s waitlisted, or Beck Middle School, where many of Johnson’s students will end up.

That makes for an even more awkward transition to an awkward stage of life, said Matt Williams, Michelle’s husband.

“Ideally, they’re sharing this with the classmates that they’ve been with for years,” he said. “My daughter and other children from the Johnson community…are singled out.”

Not having Rosa—a school less than a mile from the two adjoining developments—available as a neighborhood middle school, as Beck and Carusi are to a certain degree, was a point of some frustration for several parents, who suggested the possibility of redistricting to eliminate the lottery and turn Rosa into a neighborhood school.

“I really feel it’s doing an injustice,” Heather Ford said. “Why should we be putting our children in any neighborhood through any of this anxiety…of what school you’re getting into?”

Failing that, the parents asked about the possibility of a waiver to bump students from those neighborhoods to Beck, where most of their classmates who don’t go to Rosa will be next year.

“What we want to do is see how we can work together with the school board to find a resolution, not only for our kids, but for the kids who are coming behind us,” Matt Williams said.

School board members didn’t immediately have a solution for the parents, though board President Kathy Judge said they sympathize.

“Everybody here at this table has been through the lottery process, or is going to be going through the lottery process with our children,” she said. “I’m just not prepared to give you an answer.”

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