School Rezoning Draws Large Crowd

More than 250 local parents turned out to a Johns Creek High School Attendance Zone meeting hosted Monday, April 14 by Fulton County Schools. The forum, round two of three informational meetings, was held to address high school rezoning for North Fulton Schools brought about by the new high school under construction in Johns Creek.

Patrick Burke, the lead demographer for the Fulton County Schools System, along with Randee Nagler, area superintendent for the North Fulton school cluster, moderated the meeting to encourage input and a public discussion about the redistricting process.

Early in the meeting, Nagler asked for a show of hands to see how many parents had not been through the school redistricting process before. Only a few hands went up.

That’s not unusual in North Fulton where population trends have pushed school facilities to their limits and beyond. Most North Fulton school kids have been through at least one redistricting.

But school over-crowding, a longtime issue in North Fulton, may continue at some area schools for a while said Burke.

“Obviously one [new] school is not going to do it,” Burke told the crowd.

He said the system has a couple of new schools in the planning process and intends to open another high school, in addition to the Johns Creek High School under construction at the corner of State Bridge and Medlock Bridge roads.

“We will deliberately leave a couple of schools more over-crowded for a time in anticipation of a new school in 2012,” Burke said.

Burke explained how the attendance zone system, developed in the mid-1990’s, looks at criteria for school redistricting using as their primary decision criteria: geographic proximity; instructional capacity; and projected enrollment.

Secondarily school officials said they looked at neighborhood groups, traffic patterns, frequency of previous re-zonings, special programs and school feeder alignments as determinants.

How Redistricting Works
The data is feed into a software program that provides multiple options for redistricting. Those possibilities are presented to the public for comment and staff continues to massage a draft plan presented to school board members for a vote.

At the Monday meeting, parents broke into small discussion groups to address four questions posed by the school system: why should certain areas remain together; what traffic concerns do you have; is there future development or trends that could impact your area; and, how many recent re-zonings has your neighborhood undergone?

Parents in the River Trail Middle School breakout group spent a large portion of their time talking about traffic. Nearly every parent knew exactly how many left hand turns it took to reach their child’s school, along with how many miles and minutes it took to reach the schoolhouse.

Chattahoochee High School parent and school cluster coordinator Carolyn Briner said, at the end of the day, parents just want to know where their children will be attending school.

“I spend a lot of time dispelling rumors,” Briner said.

She said she has received hundreds of e-mail messages from parents and parent groups.

Johns Creek School Board member Ashley Widener echoed that.

“I’ve fielded nearly a 100 questions [so far],” Widener said.

Briner said parents should remember that all the schools in North Fulton are “good” schools, underscoring the point there are no bad school choices because of the level of parental and system support.

Neighborhoods Jockeying for Financial Position?

So why is there any drama at all?

There is some jockeying for position of school booster dollars. Some parents, who preferred not to be directly quoted, said regrouping wealth around a school could mean the difference of new school equipment.

High-end neighborhoods can bring high-end athletic programs.

“But everything does not revolve around sports,” said one parent.

Another concern swimming just below the surface is special programs balancing. Some parents expressed concern that English language classes would be balanced out across schools.

Burke dealt deftly with most of the concerns during a question and answer period, but some of that parental paranoia drifted to the top. One person asked if school board members were holding private sessions with “politically-connected” subdivisions and their attorneys.

Fulton County School Board Member Katie Reeves answered this question with a resounding, “no.”
Reeves said the purpose of the large public meetings was to avoid any appearance of special treatment, but she warned parents that if they truly wanted her to hear their concerns to stick to the process.

“If you hire an attorney, then your attorney will be talking to the school board attorney, not me,” Reeves said.

Everyone will be treated the same said Burke, which is why school system staff will not attend neighborhood meetings. “It appears inequitable,” he said.

A final decision will be rendered by the Fulton County School Board in the fall. Changes in school redistricting would not go into effect until August 2009.

Upcoming High School Attendance/Redistricting Meetings
May 5
May 20
Both meetings will be held at Autry Mill Middle School, 7 p.m. – 9 p.m.

For more information or to participate in the comment period visit www.fulton.k12.ga.us or e-mail planning@fulton.k12.ga.us.