Valdosta City School Board members had plenty of questions but few solutions for staff at Tuesday’s work session.

The called meeting debuted two new options for rezoning the system’s elementary schools. The goal is to eventually have all elementary schools operating as kindergarten through fifth grade facilities.

The options were presented to the board for perusal and discussion by Marty Roesch, assistant superintendent of finance and operations.

The goal is to convert J.L. Lomax, W.G. Nunn and Southeast Elementary Schools into K-5 facilities with the rezoning.

S.L. Mason and Sallas-Mahone already house K-5 students.

Discussion of both options boiled down to one issue — race.

Warren Lee, District 3, did not prefer either option but did not expound on the reason why.

“I don’t like the direction we are going in,” Lee said.

Jeana Beeland, at-large member, questioned how the different options would affect the diversity of S.L. Mason and Sallas Mahone.

Option Two would make S.L. Mason predominately white and Sallas Mahone predominantly black, Roesch said.

Annie Fisher, District 1, said she would like to see all the schools racially balanced and maybe have a third rezoning option.

Roesch said a racial balance would be difficult since 76.17 percent of the student body is black.

Students could be bused to different schools to alleviate disparities, Fisher said.

Trying to populate the schools based on race would be difficult, Roesch said.

“We can’t control a population shift, it doesn’t matter how we draw the district lines,” Roesch said. “Ultimately the population will shift.”

“But we can control which school they go to,” Lee said.

Trey Sherwood, District 5, disagreed.

“We can control which school they go to in this system,” Sherwood said. “I just want that to be clear.”

Rezoning should be based on what is best for the students instructionally and academically, Roesch said.

“These two scenarios best fit the needs of the kids in our school district,” Superintendent Dr. Bill Cason said.

Dean Rexroth, District 4, then began to break down the options based on race.

Option One stretches the district of Sallas Mahone, but keeps the schools more racially diverse. Option Two makes the districts for Sallas Mahone and S.L. Mason more geographically compact but creates a racial disparity.

Roesch said Option One would not change the demographics of any of the elementary schools. Option One facilitates the change from K-3 and 4-5 schools to K-5 schools on the East side of the district and moves the least amount of students.

Option Two serves the same purpose but also redistricts Sallas and S.L. Mason and moves masses amounts of students, Roesch said.

The ideal date for the rezoning to be approved by is April 15, so plans to move teachers, students and organize transportation can begin, he said.

Before the board can approve a rezoned map, two advertised public hearings must be held. Before the public hearings the board will have another work session on the rezoning on Thursday, Feb. 26 at 7 p.m. at the central office.

Both options will be available for viewing at the Valdosta City School System Central Office on Williams Street.