GREENFIELD — With a vote on ending intradistrict School Choice still forthcoming, some parents and teachers are pushing for the School Committee to consider how an abrupt end to the practice could affect students who would be forced to return to their neighborhood schools.

Others, meanwhile, are asking committee members to remember “the people whose voices don’t always project as loud” in their quest for improving equity between Greenfield’s elementary schools.

The conversation comes as school officials begin to move forward on the redistricting plan. This could mean setting a hard deadline to end the practice of intradistrict School Choice — requiring students to return to their neighborhood school — or allowing students to age out of their chosen school while no longer allowing new participants, including siblings, to choice-in from within the district.

No vote was taken Wednesday evening, though one is anticipated at the December meeting, according to Chair Amy Proietti.

A hard stop at the start of the academic year in September 2024, when the changes are slated to go into effect, would mitigate the potential need for shifting the special education programs between schools, according to Superintendent Christine DeBarge. DeBarge previously said she’d only been allowing incoming kindergartners who would still have a sibling at their school of choice to go to a different school that’s not their neighborhood school.

“We need to find a solution that works for everyone at [the Discovery School at Four Corners] and keep everyone who is already there instead of disadvantaging one or another group,” said Rebecca Rideout. “Regarding redistricting, this plan … has created a bizarre narrative in which intradistrict families seem to stand in the way of redistricting. This could not be less true and it’s certainly causing divisions — the opposite of what we need to build community.”

While the Discovery School at Four Corners has traditionally been a popular school for intradistrict School Choice, DeBarge previously emphasized there is no difference between the elementary schools when it comes to curriculum, instruction or programming.

The redistricting option that it seems officials are most strongly considering involves redrawing the district lines “to more evenly balance the demographic enrollment,” while also moving fifth grade to the elementary level and eighth grade to the middle school.

“That’s where the conversation about choice — intradistrict choice — came up,” DeBarge said, later explaining that whether intradistrict School Choice students continue in their school of choice could mean, among other space challenges, relocating two special education classes outside of Four Corners.

Luke Martin, a teacher at Greenfield High School, said he generally supports the redistricting proposal, but asked School Committee members to take into account the impact of “shuffling kids around” based on new boundaries, including students at Leyden Woods, Oak Courts and Greenfield Gardens, as well as the impact of ending intradistrict School Choice.

“Dozens and dozens of children will be uprooted from the safe and stable environments they’ve come to know,” Martin said. “Tearing kids away from their friends or trusted adults is hardly a trauma-informed approach.”

School Committee member Jean Wall, who chaired the Re-envisioning Our School Facilities Subcommittee, emphasized that for the schools to have the space to accommodate moving fifth and eighth grade, students who previously choiced into Four Corners would need to return to their neighborhood school.

“To truly have neighborhood schools, the children who live in Leyden Woods will have to be moved back to Four Corners,” said Wall. “This will help achieve the diversity and equity that is the goal of all schools.”

She expressed frustration with the criticism for potentially ending intradistrict School Choice without offering an option for students to phase out of their school of choice.

“As someone who grew up in the South during segregation, this is reminiscent of that era,” Wall said. “During that period of my life, the majority of white parents only wanted to preserve the comfortable status of their child. It probably didn’t even occur to them that other children were suffering to achieve their child’s comfort. The absence of equity was not a consideration. That seems to be happening here in Greenfield.”

Wall’s comments, however, were not well-received by parents who spoke on behalf of students who are attending a school other than their neighborhood one.

“I’m feeling in this community — and now straight from the School Committee itself — a lot of fingerpointing about racism and things like that,” said Sarah Chase. “I think people need to not always judge a book by its cover. I’m white, my husband is Black, my students are mixed race and they are choiced to Four Corners. I’m extremely insulted by what Jean Wall had to say about people who might be choicing their students there.”

Chase said her students — a kindergartner and a fourth grader — are at Four Corners because she preferred its size to Federal Street School, which she feels is “giant.” She also expressed frustration that, when filling out the paperwork for her 6-year-old, “there was no mention” of the fact this could be temporary.

“I hope in the future … you vote to do what is right by the children of Greenfield, including those who are intradistrict choice who have done nothing to deserve being uprooted,” Chase said. “And [I hope] you vote to let them phase out of their schools.”

Rideout, too, took issue with Wall’s characterization of families asking to let their children be phased out of their school of choice.

“I acknowledge my privilege to even have known about the choice program,” she said. “I think it’s antiquated and should not exist in the future. I know all the town schools are equal in their quality. I think bringing Leyden Woods students into Four Corners makes all the sense in the world if there is consent from those families.”

Melissa Webb, a parent who has actively followed the redistricting conversations since they began, said as someone living close to one of the aforementioned housing communities, she knows from conversations with neighbors that many don’t feel comfortable or have the resources to be able to attend meetings on the subject. She also recalled the “playground chatter” when she told other families she intended to send her daughter to Newton School, her neighborhood school, rather than choicing out.

“At that point, I’d already been volunteering at Newton during the last Days Inn housing crisis,” she said. “Thank you for showing up and thank you for listening to everyone, even the people whose voices don’t always project as loud.”

Reporter Mary Byrne can be reached at mbyrne@recorder.com or 413-930-4429. Twitter: @MaryEByrne.