After weeks of public meetings and comments from parents and teachers, Roanoke officials have finished two possible attendance area changes that would radically redraw where students go to school.

The two options would do away with the city's 38-year-old checkerboard attendance zone pattern that sends about 1,000 students to schools on the other side of town.

The old attendance plan was designed to desegregate the city's schools under court order. The proposed plan would send students to schools closer to home, while also trying to balance the interests of racial and economic diversity in a city with rigid residential segregation.

School officials have been talking about redrawing the lines for more than a year, but the recent votes to close Forest Park Elementary School, Raleigh Court Elementary School and William Ruffner Middle School made it necessary to address attendance zones now, board members say.

A third option, billed as "Revised Option One,"  would keep many of the attendance lines where they are today, while splitting up students from the three closed schools.

FIVE QUESTIONS

What happens next?

The school board is set to vote for one of the maps at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Roanoke Valley Governor's School, 2104 Grandin Road S.W. Once that decision is made there are still some questions school officials will need to answer.

Will children be allowed to stay in their current schools?

This remains to be seen. Board members have said they would consider allowing children who have spent several years in their schools to stay instead of moving to a new building. For instance, rising fifth-graders and rising eighth-graders would stay, rather than moving to another school for a single year. Children in other grades, however, who are less invested in their schools, may move.

Will students be allowed to transfer?

Right now, the school system has been very generous in allowing students to transfer. Roughly a quarter of the city's elementary students do not attend the school thy are assigned to. That could change. The school board will likely revise its transfer policy to make it more compatible with the new attendance areas. The policy will not affect students from the former Forest Park Elementary School or students who choose to transfer under the School Choice provision of the No Child Left Behind law.

How will the school system make sure resources are equitably spent across schools?

If the school board approves the attendance zone changes and asks parents to move their children to a new school, it will need to make sure all schools receive their fair share of resources. In the weeks ahead, the school system will consider forming a committee to study how resources are spent across the district and to produce a report every year.

Will the school board create "sister schools"?

School officials are considering pairing up schools to allow parents to send their children to more diverse schools if they choose. Children who attend a school with a homogeneous population would be given priority to transfer to a "sister school" with a more diverse population. The school sistem might also provide transportation to the "sister school."