SOMERSET — A redistricting subcommittee is recommending that the Somerset School Committee establish "buffer zones" that would help the superintendent decide which elementary school a student should attend, depending on where that student lives.

Districts currently in place determine where students will attend elementary school. The proposed buffer zones would be smaller areas on each side of the borders of those districts.

Victor Machado, chairman of the subcommittee, said the buffer zones would be used to balance class and grade sizes at South, Chace Street and North elementary schools.

"This really is just to mitigate the overcrowding in the schools," Machado said.

The subcommittee is asking Superintendent Jeffrey Schoonover to work with Fisher Bus Company and Jennifer Ashley, a member of the subcommittee who is an instructional technology teacher for the Somerset Public Schools, to determine what streets will be in the buffer zones.

Machado said the buffer zones would start with the incoming kindergarten or newly enrolled students. Changes would not affect students already placed in schools, and siblings will always be assigned to the same schools.

Machado said the superintendent would make decisions on buffer-zone students based on data.

The recommendation follows complaints about overcrowding at Chace Street School over the last year.

The subcommittee wants to see how the buffer zones work before enacting any long-term redistricting of the elementary schools, according to Machado. Parents are encouraged to attend School Committee and redistricting subcommittee meetings, and talk to principals and administrators, if they have questions about redistricting, Machado said.