Roanoke City Public Schools rolled out the first part of a multi-year plan this week to make changes to attendance zones around its elementary schools.
"Making common sense adjustments in order to right size that attendance map a little more," says Claire Mitzel, Roanoke public schools' director of communications. "We're talking about tweaks."
These changes came out of a 2024 feasibility study, and represent the first changes to attendance zones since 2009. That change marked a complete overhaul that included closing multiple schools and adjusting bussing that had been in place since the civil rights movement. By comparison, this is a much smaller adjustment.
The feasibility study did recommend one big change — building a new high school to alleviate chronic overcrowding at the two existing high schools — but that represented a major capital expense at a time when both the city and its school system face sizable budget shortfalls.
"Especially when we're having conversations in our city right now about budgets and the future of fiscal management, right now we're looking at what we can do that is low-cost, no-cost to put us in a good position for the future," Mitzel says.
Schools are collecting surveys from families through May 18, with the school board scheduled to take a vote before the end of the month. The new attendance zones would take effect beginning in the fall.
