By SANDY McGEE

CUMBERLAND — After months of hard work by a volunteer committee, a small band of parents vocally persuaded the Cumberland School Committee to reject redistricting plans for the next school year.

Parents applauded in rejoice seconds after the School Committee’s vote of 6 to 1 to reject redistricting recommendations submitted in February by the Space Utilization Task Force. School Committee member Earl T. Wood voiced the single opposing vote during Thursday night’s meeting at the high school.
The task force’s recommendations, if approved, would have created permanent street assignments for elementary and middle school students. In other words, students would have been assigned to a school based on their address.
“The issue isn’t with the recommendations, but that there is so much information that is not available at this time,” said School Committee member W. David Wagner.
Based on recommendations from Superintendent of Schools Donna A. Morelle, the Space Utilization Task Force was created in October by the School Committee to examine potential overcrowding issues at the town’s preschool, elementary and middle schools.
The task force of 10 volunteers met regularly from November to February. Members spent four months examining and discussing an array of information, including town geographical data, current and projected enrollment data and reports from the town’s Planning Department and school department.
The task force submitted its final recommendations to the School Committee in February. The task force advised permanent street lists, which would have been the first ever-street assignments designed for the town’s two middle schools.
A group of about 30 to 50 parents vocally opposed the plans at various meetings of the Task Force, School Committee and at public hearings. The largest opponents of the proposal were parents from the Bear Hill Estates area.
About 15 parents attended the School Committee meeting on Thursday night.
“There is no legitimate reason to move less than one percent of the population away from their peers,” said parent Donna Duncan to School Committee members prior to the vote. “The enrollment is declining.”
“If it isn’t broke, don’t fix it,” said Paul Murphy. “This is the wrong way to handle this dilemma.”
The School Committee, immediately following the vote, thanked the task force members for their work during the past six months.
“The whole committee did a great job,” said School Committee Chairman Frederic Crowley.
Members of the Space Utilization Task Force reacted with disappointment and frustration to the committee’s decision.
“I find it (the committee’s remarks) very disingenuous,” said Space Utilization Task Force member John Gibbons to the School Committee. “I felt that this was an issue the School Committee didn’t want to deal with. You make the recommendations now on your own time.”
Gibbons also said that the decision was based on politics. “I should have expected this,” he said. “This is an election year.”
The task force member later said that Cumberland Hill School and Community School would continue to be overcrowded.
“They asked us to do a job and we looked at the whole town,” Gibbons said. “All the (overcrowding) problems they told us they had, they still have.”
Members of the Space Utilization Task Force also included Paul Barlow; William Enestvedt; Debra Fernandes; Brian Kelly; Laurie Kissik; Paula Maloney, principal of B.F. Norton Elementary School; William Menard; Armand Pires, principal of Joseph L. McCourt Middle School; and Gene Sartini.
School Committee member Robert Thibodeau said that the overcrowding issue would need to be re-examined in the future. “This is a priority that will need to be discussed again,” he said.
In 1994, the Cumberland Elementary School Redistricting Committee proposed sending 200 youngsters out of their home districts to other schools in an attempt to eliminate overcrowding, as well as utilize the then newly renovated B.F. Norton Elementary School.
The committee’s proposals at the time included redistricting, portable classrooms and the construction of a new middle school. All of the proposals were met with strong opposition from parents in 1994.
One of the task force’s recommendations was granted on Thursday night.
The School Committee voted unanimously, 7 to 0, to move the Cumberland Preschool Center from Our Lady of Fatima Church at 7 Fatima Drive to the B.F. Norton Elementary School, 364 Broad St.
The move will affect more than 104 children, according to school officials. The move is contingent upon the update of fire codes at B.F. Norton Elementary School, according to the School Committee.
“We have been anticipating this,” said Kathleen Gibney, principal of the Preschool Center. “It’s just changing the roof over our heads.”
The school department is expected to save money by not leasing the building on Fatima Drive. 
School Committee member Earl T. Wood discussed his concern that the building’s lease would not be available next year after the program’s move.
Committee member Karen MacBeth expressed her approval of the transition due to the opportunity to house the preschoolers with older students, who could serve as role models to the youth.
“It (the move) would have a positive education effect,” she said.
Also voted upon at Thursday night’s meeting: the Camera Surveillance System policy, which was approved 7 to 0; and the extension of the Retirement Incentive Proposal, which was approved 7 to 0.
The Retirement Incentive Proposal, which offers teachers additional benefits if they retire, was extended until June 30. The proposal is expected to save the district $500,000, according to the superintendent.