Gwinnett County school board members unanimously voted late Thursday on a plan to close a school for special needs students and sell the property to the city of Sugar Hill for $2.5 million.
School district officials want to move the 37 students in the Buice School to other schools in Gwinnett, to the dismay of some parents who worry the education of their children will suffer. Buice serves preschool and pre-kindergarten children.
“Our special needs children have been thrown to the side like they don’t matter,” parent Heather Magliochetti told the board.
To the contrary, some school board members said.
“I think your kids are going to be fine…We will see that they will be fine,” said Louise Radloff, Gwinnett’s longest-serving board member, who joined the board in 1973.
Gwinnett officials said the main reason for their plans is to create continuity for the students once they enter an elementary school, as opposed to being in a stand-alone program or school. Buice is the district’s only stand-alone pre-K program. School district officials proposed selling the six acres where the Buice School sits to the city of Sugar Hill, which is the early stages of a downtown development plan.
Parents said they hope the district keeps the school open, at least until the students currently enrolled there leave the school. The school board initially planned to vote on closing the school in March, but delayed their decision after some parents said they knew little about the plans. Gwinnett officials met with parents shortly afterward, but some parents said the district’s plans appear disorganized. Some parents, like Maggie Wright, said they’ve received misinformation about where their children will attend school next year.
“I can’t understand why you all are closing the Buice School,” she told the board.
In an attempt to reassure the concerned parents, several board members and Gwinnett administrators met with parents after Thursday’s meeting.
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