A group has created a petition to stop Gwinnett County school officials from building an alternative school for students with academic and disciplinary issues in the southern end of the county.
The petition, which is on the website Change.org, says that the planned Gwinnett Intervention Center (G.I.V.E.) South would be too close to Anderson-Livsey Elementary School and a proposed county park.
“Location of the center next to an existing elementary school does not provide the example and frame of reference for younger students,” the petition says.
Gwinnett school officials defended the plan Monday, citing the difficulty many students have traveling to its two alternative school campuses. GIVE East is near the county government complex in Lawrenceville. GIVE West is in Norcross.
“Right now, students provided the GIVE option must provide their own transportation to the facility in Norcross or in Lawrenceville,” said Gwinnett spokeswoman Sloan Roach. “A GIVE option in the southern area of the county would be much more accessible to students from the Parkview, Brookwood, South Gwinnett, and Shiloh clusters.”
GIVE South would serve about 170 students. Students would be required to wear uniforms and the school would have metal detectors. Discussions about the school started in 2012.
The school was scheduled to be open by the 2017-18 school year, but officials said during a recent meeting it could open as soon as the 2016-17 school year.
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