MANCHESTER — The unspoken issue in the Manchester classroom crowding conundrum may come up when the Board of School Committee meets tonight.

The issue is redrawing school district lines to reduce class sizes, which threaten both state approval of city schools and suburban towns' high school contracts and the millions they pump into the district each year.

Mayor Ted Gatsas has given broad hints that redistricting will soon be on the table, and suggested last week that redrawing lines for elementary schools might be appropriate.

“This body has never had a conversation about redistricting,” Gatsas said in a telephone interview Saturday. “Monday, we want to talk about different solutions.”

Superintendent Thomas Brennan said he would talk about “several things” during a presentation to the board and said redistricting “could be” one of the topics.

“I'll leave that up to the mayor,” Brennan said.

The superintendent said he would be willing to make a presentation on redistricting if the board asks for it.

“If they want to proceed, that's exactly what I'll do,” he said.

It has been more than four years since the Future of West High School Advisory Committee floated a plan that would have re-configured grade levels to move higher elementary grades to traditional middle schools and add eighth-, and possibly seventh-graders to the high school level.

That suggestion ran into strong opposition from both teachers and parents concerned about age-appropriate grouping of grades.

Two years ago, the administration presented a redistricting report offering the option of redrawn boundaries for some elementary schools to transfer students to nearby schools with more space.

School board member John Avard said the topic may be controversial, even emotional.

“At this time I think it would be a wise move for us to visit it,” said Avard, who has no plans to introduce the matter himself.

“I think it would be an extreme hit no matter when you do it,” he said. “There is a lot of loyalty to your school in Manchester and any time you do redistricting for school or political lines, it will have some angst that goes along with it.”

School board Vice Chair David Gelinas said redistricting may not resolve all of the issues the school district faces.

“The superintendent concluded some time ago that based on our capacity and the buildings that we had that it wasn't feasible,” Gelinas said.

As far as high school redistricting is concerned, Gelinas suggests that moving Hooksett's high school contingent from Central to West may be an answer.

“There has been some conversation about whether Hooksett is willing to send their kids to West,” Gelinas said. “That would solve problems we have in the high school.”

But sending Manchester Central students to the under-utilized West building might not work, Gelinas said, because of the re-configuration of courses and teachers that would be required.

Committee member Donna Soucy said redistricting “should be a topic for discussion” but agrees with Gelinas that the details involved in elementary school redistricting could create as many problems as it solves.

Board members expect to receive an update on class sizes tonight; a report is due to the state a week from today. Resolving the crowding issue will take longer, those involved say.

“I'm not aware of a magic plan that will solve all of our issues,” Soucy said. “I think we need to be open to a lot of different things to try to provide the best education we can.”

wsmith@unionleader.com