A Bluffton lawmaker says he plans to pull legislation that would have allowed students to avoid mandatory transfers from one school to another, an idea the school district's incoming superintendent said could cause "a logistical nightmare."

Rep. Bill Herbkersman, R-Bluffton, said Wednesday that he had intended to help Bluffton parents who were upset because their children will have to move to Hilton Head Island schools as the Beaufort County School District tries to relieve crowding.

The legislation would allow students statewide who have begun at a particular school to continue there even if school officials redraw attendance zones. Students new to an area would be required to attend the school assigned to the newly drawn zone.

But Herbkersman said he got a call Wednesday from school board member David Chase, who represents Sun City Hilton Head, Okatie and the greater Bluffton communities north of U.S. 278, telling him that the bill would have financial and logistical consequences.

Herbkersman said that shortly after he submitted the legislation April 13, state Rep. Ronald Townsend, R-Anderson, who is chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Education and Public Works, also raised concerns about the potential ramifications of the bill.

He also said he initially learned of parents' concerns from Chase. Discussions with Chase and conversations with constituents whose children are facing mandatory transfers prompted him to submit the bill.

Now, however, Herbkersman said he plans to study the impact of the legislation, discuss it with school district administrators and school board members, revise it and possibly resubmit it next year.

Chase said Wednesday that he agrees the bill needs revision. He said that he plans to pass it to the school board's Advocacy Committee for review and revisions.

Herbkersman said he's not sure why he didn't research the issue more thoroughly before submitting the bill. It was late in the legislative session, which ends in June, and he assumed Chase knew about the issue.

"We researched the problem but not the solution," Herbkersman said.

Edna Crews, the Beaufort County School District's incoming superintendent, said the unintended consequences of that solution could have caused "a logistical nightmare" for the district.

The district would have had to transport students living in the same neighborhoods to different schools, she said, and it already has problems getting students to school on time with its limited number of state-owned buses.

If the district had asked the state for more buses because of this, Crews said, "They would think we'd lost our minds."

The district changed attendance zones in two areas of greater Bluffton.

About 100 Bluffton Elementary School students who live along Buck Island Road will go to Okatie Elementary School when the year-round school begins in July.

The other transfer affects about 180 students who live near the bridges leading to Hilton Head Island and who attend Michael C. Riley Elementary, H.E. McCracken Middle and Bluffton High schools. The elementary and middle school students will have the option of attending Hilton Head schools next year but will be required to do so starting in the 2006-07 school year. All students who have started at Bluffton High will be allowed to remain at the school.

Crews said the district might face discrimination lawsuits if some students in a particular community were barred from attending a school simply because they have moved in recently. The plan also would have unraveled the district's attempt to reduce overcrowding at Bluffton schools next year by redrawing attendance zones.

At Bluffton Elementary, about 760 students are enrolled in a school built for 550. About 740 students are enrolled at M.C. Riley, which was built for 650. Okatie Elementary School is near its capacity of 550 students, and McCracken was built for 750 students but 968 are enrolled. About 1,100 students are enrolled at Bluffton High, which was built for 1,000.

The biggest problem that could come from the bill is that when a district builds new schools and then redraws attendance zones for them, students could refuse to leave their old schools to attend the new one. If that were the case, Crews said, "What's the point of building new schools?"

Crews said Chase made his suggestion to Herbkersman as "a sincere attempt to do the right thing." But, she said, "You have to think about the impact throughout the system."

With the rapid growth in the county, "We're going to be doing rezoning in this district for the next 10 years," she said.