Gwinnett school district map with few changes garners support
The Gwinnett County Board of Education’s next district map will likely have few changes to existing boundaries.
The new map was designed to be as similar to the existing boundaries as possible, changing the district for only 27,000 of the nearly 1 million residents of Gwinnett. It’s one of two that the school board approved in December.
The second map redrew districts to be more compact and based off of school clusters. It would change the district for about one-third of residents.
At a recent public hearing about redistricting in the county, state Rep. Sam Park, D-Lawrenceville, said Gwinnett’s state legislative delegation is working off of the school board’s proposed “map one.”
Park has already introduced legislation for redistricting. Once the 25-member delegation finalizes the map, it will go to the rest of the General Assembly for approval.
Park said the delegation selected the first map after about 65% of the 6,801 responses in a district survey favored it.
The district lines must be redrawn because of the 2020 census. The census reported a 19% population increase in Gwinnett from 2010. Based on the updated population count, school board districts must have an equal number of constituents, plus or minus 1%. Districts 1 and 2 are too large and districts 4 and 5 are too small under the existing boundaries.
The districts determine a resident’s school board district. They have no impact on which school students attend.
Gwinnett’s state legislative delegation will ultimately decide on a map to bring to the General Assembly for approval.
Several residents spoke about the district’s process for gathering feedback on the two maps, saying the survey should have been available for longer and promoted and presented in more languages to be more inclusive.
A second public hearing will be held virtually at 7 p.m. Wednesday. The meeting will be broadcast on the delegation’s Facebook page. At that meeting, the delegation will be able to amend the maps and vote on the maps to bring to the General Assembly. Park also invited residents to provide input on the maps by emailing info@gwinnettcounty.gov.
About the Author
Josh Reyes covers Gwinnett County Public Schools for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. A native of Virginia, he wrote about local government and public safety at the Daily Press and The Virginian-Pilot. He graduated from Christopher Newport University with a B.A. in English.
