What: Cannon Air Force Base and Clovis Municipal School officials will hold an open meeting to discuss redesigning school zoning for students living in base housing.

 

When: 6 p.m. Monday

 

Where: Barry Elementary School.

 

Background: Cannon and Clovis school officials are proposing to rezone Ranchvale Elementary so all children living in base housing attend the school.

 

Currently, most students living in base housing attend Ranchvale Elementary but a small portion go to Barry Elementary, according to Sgt. Brandon Seals of Cannon Air Force Base’s Public Affairs Office.

 

“We’ve got three or four different areas of military housing out here that are all going to one school and then there’s this one little area of housing that is going to a different one,” he said. “So what they’re looking to do is just rezone one small area of housing to be in line with the rest of them.”

 

Transition phase: Base liaison Lt. Col. John McLaurin said the proposal would keep both schools with sizable student populations as base population declines resulting from the base’s transition to a special operations wing. The proposal would also make extra room at Barry Elementary to accept more students as the city expands.

 

The impact: Some parents asked if the move was necessary during a town hall meeting about two months ago when the issue was first raised, according to Seals, who has a child attending Barry Elementary school.

 

“There were several families there, myself included, that were concerned about how the rezoning would affect the future school attendance for our children,” he said. “Our kids have been going to this school for a certain amount of time and is it really necessary that we rezone?”

 

By the Numbers: Thirty-six percent of Barry Elementary’s 283 students are from base housing.

 

Ranchvale Elementary Principal Suzanne Brockmeier said her school can accommodate more students if the school board approves the proposal.

 

“We have only 130 kids right now and I’ve had up to 460, so we can definitely handle it,” she said.


— Compiled by CNJ staff writer Gabriel Monte