The Hanover County School Board voted 6-1 last night to adopt new school attendance zone boundaries in the Mechanicsville area.

The plan is designed to fill the new Laurel Meadow Elementary School with 710 students, or 91 percent capacity, and relieve crowding at Battlefield Park, Mechanicsville and Pole Green elementary schools.

It also will move some students from Battlefield Park to Cold Harbor Elementary, and some from Rural Point to Pole Green Elementary.

However, the plan makes no changes to the attendance zone for Washington Henry Elementary School, which is projected to be at 102 percent capacity in five years. Glenn T. Millican Jr., who represents the Mechanicsville District on the School Board, cast the dissenting vote. He said it is possible that more students than anticipated may move into the district.

"Leaving Washington Henry at the proposed level when we may not have the funding to do anything about it is a concern," Millican said.

Sue Forbes Watson, who represents Ashland District on the board, said the recommendation by the 46-member redistricting committee was based on the best information available and the School Board's definition of overcrowding -- when a school is more than 20 percent over capacity for more than three consecutive years.

"There's no perfect plan, but this plan has certainly been studied and responded to and tweaked," she said. "The transportation people have looked at the roads again to try to come up with the very best way to get students into every elementary school in the best way possible."

The board unanimously approved separate recommendations to have students in the Craney Island subdivision remain at Cool Spring Elementary and to convene a group next fall to examine middle and high school feeder patterns and attendance zones.
Contact Melodie N. Martin at (804) 649-6290 or mmartin@timesdispatch.com.