Gwinnett County Schools officials said Monday they expect a federal civil rights investigation examining whether discrimination occurred when more than 500 students were redistricted to new campuses for the fall will determine that the district’s process is fair.
The U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights recently accepted jurisdiction in two complaints lodged by parents alleging that Gwinnett Schools discriminated against African-American and Hispanic students in the redrawing of attendance zones in the Peachtree Ridge and Duluth school clusters.
Gwinnett officials confirmed they received copies of the April complaints on Monday. They said the boundary changes were necessary to reduce overcrowding in Peachtree Ridge neighborhood schools and make better use of empty seats in Duluth.
“We now have a copy and will be reviewing what the Office of Civil Rights has sent us and gathering the information they have requested,” Gwinnett Schools spokeswoman Sloan Roach said.
The district used enrollment history and projections, student transportation data and school locations, among other information, before drawing boundaries, Jorge Quintana, a spokesman for Gwinnett Schools, said. The process also was open to community feedback before the school board approved the map.
“We don’t use economics, race or ethnicity to balance our enrollment,” Quintana said. “It is based all on numbers. We use natural boundaries to help guide us in the redistricting. When we can, we try to keep large neighborhoods or subdivisions intact whenever it is possible.”
But parents say many of the 505 students switched from Peachtree to Duluth schools are low income and minority. The busiest hallways will see the least change.
Under the plan, 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.
The complaints allege that the numbers show Gwinnett discriminated against low-income and minority students by preventing them from attending a high school in a more affluent area and that the district moved low-income students to a cluster already overburdened with poor students.
Duluth parent Dianne Ogden, who spoke out against the shuffle, maintaining the populations should be evenly split. She was pleased the federal agency agreed to investigate.
"I am thrilled that they are taking us seriously," she said. "I think the investigation adds validity to our claims and will prove our point."
Jim Bradshaw, a spokesman for the U.S. Department of Education, said the Office of Civil Rights received about 7,000 complaints last year but only 20 dealing specifically with school closings or rezonings. After jurisdiction is determined complaints are investigated. "In virtually all cases, we're able to work with districts short of moving to enforcement," he said.
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