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Tuesday, February 8, 2005
Redistricting: Sweet Liberty
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Parents at Liberty Elementary School in Cherokee County are singing the redistricting blues. Some families will likely be sent to another school when the board of education adopts new attendance boundaries next month.
Liberty opened just two years ago and is already full. And the kids keep coming, as many as 250 additional kids a year. Homebuilders haven’t even finished developing the subdivisions surrounding Liberty.
Even families who live in the Bridgemill subdivision right across the street from Liberty fear they will eventually be rezoned to a school further away.
The debate over who should stay at Liberty and who should go played out at a public hearing last night. More than 400 parents attended. The parents bristled at suggestions that they don’t want to relocate to the new school because it will include kids from Tippens Elementary, which serves many Hispanic families and has lower test scores. Parents insisted they aren’t worried about property values either. They simply want to stay at Liberty.
This scenario plays out all over metro Atlanta, a sure sign of a community where residents enjoy a high quality of life that includes good schools. Understandably, they don’t want to risk losing that. But with the number of homes going up in these communities, school crowding must be addressed.
Have you been redistricted? Was the school district’s process fair? How should districts deal with overcrowding and the inevitable need to build new schools and redraw attendance boundaries?
