A Gwinnett County Schools redistricting plan was unanimously approved on Thursday night that moves nearly 200 fewer students from crowded campuses than originally proposed.
The much debated plan will transfer 505 Peachtree Ridge elementary, middle and high school students to open seats in Duluth neighborhood schools, which are under capacity. Originally, 716 students were to be moved.
The vote came after three map revisions and two public hearings. However, the final draft was announced and voted on before the public comment portion of Thursday night's board meeting, frustrating parents who had signed up to speak.
“They have passed a plan that has never been publicly commented on or reviewed,” said Jenny Jensen, an attorney and Duluth mother of three. “They moved it up on the agenda. There were people from the community here to speak on this issue.”
More than 1,400 parents and residents submitted ideas for improving the boundaries in the weeks leading to the vote.
The new plan does little to alleviate the student overflows housed in trailers of Peachtree Ridge’s most populated campuses. Nearly half of those students -- 241 -- are being moved from Mason Elementary, which is under capacity by 13. The busiest hallways will see the least change. Peachtree Ridge High, a school of 3,226 and over capacity by 426, stands to lose only 158 teens. Hull Middle School, which has a 2,409 enrollment, is over capacity by 659 and will lose just 106 students.
Residents from the Duluth Schools neighborhoods had pushed the board to consider student demographics before reassigning low-income neighborhoods to their district. They said those neighborhoods should be evenly split between Peachtree Ridge and Duluth. They also said they wanted businesses and higher-end subdivisions to balance out the proposal.
“Redistricting is never easy," Superintendent J. Alvin Wilbanks said before the vote. “The decision will not be what everyone wants but will no doubt be enhanced by the fact that whatever school students attend they will be well educated.”
Duluth residents did not get what they hoped for. They lost the high-end Cresswell subdivision that would have reunited parts of their city lost to Peachtree Ridge High when it opened in 2003. Duluth also received less of the business district it had hoped for on Buford Highway.
Michelle Doss, a parent, said she was pleased that Cardinal Lake was left out.
“I feel like our neighborhood voice was heard last night,” said Doss, who has two kids at Mason Elementary who were slated to be moved to Duluth schools. “I want my kids to stay where they are at. My kids have been going there for four years."
About half of Duluth High students qualify for free or discounted lunches compared to 32 percent of Peachtree Ridge High students. Duluth feeder schools have a Title I campus that receives federal aid. No Peachtree Ridge feeder schools have that designation.
Voicing further displeasure, Jennifer Falk, a Duluth parent, read a statement from Georgia NAACP President Edward Dubose, who monitored Gwinnett's redistricting process for fairness. It said: "With your vote tonight, you have not achieved the balanced enrollment that you say was your stated purpose. All you have done is made Peachtree Ridge whiter and richer and pulled the rug out from under Duluth."
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