When the North Hills School District school board unanimously agreed to redistrict according to its own plans, it did more than redraw attendance lines; it broke a promise and damaged an already crumbling relationship, say some members of a committee that had been asked to study the issue in 2007.

The board adopted Redistricting Map 1 at Monday night's school board meeting. In that plan, Perrysville and Seville elementary schools will close at the end of the school year. Northway, although being used temporarily now, closed last year.

Perrysville Elementary students will be most affected. Sixty percent of them will attend Highcliff, 20 percent will attend Ross and the remaining 20 percent will go to McIntyre.

Even before the board's unanimous vote, parents voiced disappointment at how the matter was being handled.

In 2007, the school board had sought advice from a 34-member redistricting committee made up of parents, administrators, real estate professionals and newly elected school director Kathy Reid. The issue was how to permanently divide the district's 80 neighborhoods among four schools after multiple temporary transfers of students to accommodate building renovations.

The committee presented three options:

• Status Quo A would have kept as many students as possible in their current schools.

• Status Quo B would have transferred students as a group from each of the three schools scheduled to close to the other schools. Perrysville students would have been assigned to West View, Seville students to Highcliff and Northway students to McIntyre.

• The Proximity Plan would have moved a larger number of students but would have minimized the longest pupil commutes. It also would have allowed for future growth in the four remaining elementary schools.

Parents expressed concern even before the vote. "I had my reservations about board members being involved," said former committee member Erica Ehrlich, who worried that the "school board would negate the work done by the committee."

Before the vote, board member Arlene Bender said the board had felt the sting of disapproval from residents through more than just angry letters and phone calls.

"We've been criticized, belittled and even cursed out," she said, "but we're your neighbors, and we just want to do what's best for the kids. We all had a decision to make, and I believe that what we're voting on is what's best for all our students."

After the vote, board members defended their decision and thanked the committee for its hard work and valuable input, but to some committee members, it was little consolation.

"Highcliff [neighborhood] parents were thrown under the bus," said Suzanne Bass, a parent of two. Others lamented the closing of historic Perrysville School, and there was discussion about students from the Brookmeade and Wallingford neighborhoods commuting 45-minutes each way.

"At least a decision's been made," said Debbie Buzzard, a former redistricting committee member. The plan will be implemented in the 2010-11 school year, and parents will receive more information in a letter in April, the district website said.

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