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DEL.ICIO.USRedistricting: 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?
Comments
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By Ernest
February 9, 2005 10:25 AM | Link to this
Redistricting at times may seem like a dirty word. The dynamic nature of housing patterns forces us to consider this with under/over populated schools throughout a district. I spoke with a facilities manager for Cobb schools who indicated they had some success with combining nearby elementary school zones and creating a Pre-K through 2 academy at one site with the other site being grades 3-5. Because of state regulations on how many students can be in a class, this had the ‘effect’ of relieving overcrowding without adding trailers.
I’d be especially interested in hearing from anyone from Gwinnett County on this. Is the ‘large school’ methodology working out? Without question, the athletic programs have benefited from this but can one still receive ‘nurturing’ in a large environment?
By David
February 9, 2005 11:51 AM | Link to this
Why do you parents continue to put up with this kind of garbage from the government? You probably were naive enough to think that where you moved to would ensure a good education for your child, and now they are taking that away from you. The government fails you at every turn. The education is substandard, the zero tolerance is idiotic, the rules are unbelievable, and in the end, they disenfranchise your child at every turn with the simple wave of the redistricting wand.
Why are you not homeschooling them? There are no seriously worthwhile excuses. If you happen to be a single parent, there is still the possibility to give your kids the best education they can get - at home. If two parents must work, then that is something you should have thought about before you had kids. They are a responsibility - YOURS. So is their education - NOT THE GOVERNMENT’s or your fellow taxpayer’s - many of whom do not even have kids.
Every blog here is nothing but a forum to discuss everything that is inherently wrong with having the heartless, clueless government pretend to educate your kids. Their future is far too important to hand over to the same folks that can’t deliver the mail on time.
Stop complaining and start homeschooling. The only one you have to blame for your kids’ education problems is yourself.
By T. Barrett
February 11, 2005 03:53 PM | Link to this
One thing people have to remember is that redistricting is a part of life in a booming metropolitan area like Atlanta. I grew in in East Cobb when it was booming in the 1980´s. Our subdivision was districted to four different middle schools between 1982-1993 (our subdivision was first zoned to Mabry, then was redistricted to McCleskey in 1983, to Simpson in 1988, and finally to Hightower Trail in 1993). My older brother and sister attended Mabry, while I attended McCleskey for 6th grade and Simpson for 7th and 8th. People during this time basically accepted the changes and there were really no protests. Redistricting was a part of the growing process. People were actually satisfied that something was being done about the overcrowding. New schools also offer a chance for a new beginning. However, I do think redistricting should not happen more than once during a 5-year “mini-generation” period per school level (elementary, middle, or high). I also think that parents and students do have a right to gripe if redistricting leaves an area isolated or marginalized…meaning a very small part of a district feeds into a different middle or high school (which is the case with a part of the McCleskey school district that feeds into Sprayberry, when the overwhelming majority of the McCleskey district now feeds into Kell). A school district should never have less than 20-25% of its area feed into a different middle or high school.