From the back window of her north Atlanta home, Beth Hamilton can see Bolton Academy.
It is where she walks her two children, first- and third-graders, to school every day, without fear that they will be rezoned to another school, that their neighborhood would be split up or the academic programs would change.
Hamilton knows that’s not always the case for many parents. Metro Atlanta’s school systems face shifting student populations, which has prompted redistrcting plans for schools, which in turn have prompted public outcry across the region.
“We are very fortunate,” said Hamilton, the former PTA president of Bolton. “Nobody likes changes, but when [Atlanta Public Schools Superintendent Erroll] Davis came out with his recommendations, we were thrilled. Now we can continue to work together. We have everything to offer here.”
Last week, Davis released his systemwide recommendations to rezone the city’s boundaries — the first time it has been done in more than a decade — to relieve schools that are overcrowded and close those with low enrollments. APS has enough seats to serve 62,500 students but has roughly 49,000 enrolled.
Under the latest proposal, North Atlanta and the Buckhead area remained pretty much intact, while other parts of the city will soon prepare for major shifts. The decision appears to be a major victory for the area steeped in money, power and influence. Some see the plan as the system buckling to that pressure. Others think the area — albeit overcrowded — what all Atlanta schools should want to be.
Buckhead has the type of “stable cluster” he wants to establish throughout the system, Davis said, with a collection of schools that seamlessly serve students from preschool through graduation without a drop-off in quality.
“I certainly hear, ‘If you have to shut one of our schools, why don’t you shut a school a school down in Buckhead. too?’” Davis said. “But the greater question is what do they have that I should have? They have a stable cluster. Now you have one. They have an academic support system, which I am giving you.”
Davis said as part of the redistricting, every school in this system will have an assistant principal, for example, a luxury that many schools don’t enjoy.
“If you take stable clusters, better academic services and parental engagement, you have better schools,” Davis said.
Atlanta’s plan follows similar recent moves by districts in Cobb and DeKalb. In February, Cobb approved a redistricting that will affect more than 2,500 students in two dozen schools over the next two school years.
After more than a year of political infighting, DeKalb officials approved a plan that moved around 7,000 students, closed eight schools and freed up about $12.4 million annually.
APS plans to close 13 schools for a savings of about $6.5 million annually. The plan would eliminate 7,200 empty seats and displace about 2,500 students through school closures this fall.
Earlier versions of the plan included opening a new middle school in the area and building a new elementary school. Current plans call for the six elementary schools feeding into crowded Sutton Middle, which will relocate to the larger North Atlanta High site when a new high school building opens in 2013. Sixth-graders will stay in the existing middle school building.
Leigh Darby, PTA co-president of Sutton Middle School, said district parents were able to present Davis facts and “show him the numbers.”
“Yes, we have large parental involvement and we all came together as a cluster,” Darby said. “We all said, “I don’t like the [original] idea, but here are some options and that helped. Parents in this cluster did our research.”
Parents throughout Buckhead have rejected claims — mostly coming from outside of the area — that Davis acted out of fear of losing Buckhead parents who could afford to transfer out of public schools if they wanted to.
“Parents do not pay us to come to school other than with property taxes,” Davis said. “I don’t think they were going to take their homes and move. And if they moved, somebody else would move in.”
Sam Massell, president of the Buckhead Coalition and a former Atlanta mayor, said he doubts if Davis was swayed by that kind of pressure — although he thinks that the threats were real.
“He saw the wisdom of making adjustments,” Massell said. “That doesn’t mean that Erroll Davis gave up anything he believed in.”
Amy Shea, co-president of the North Atlanta High School PTA, said the claims about Buckhead are not based in reality.
“It is a very emotional statement not grounded in facts,” Shea said. “The nature of our problem is different. How can you talk about closing schools in Buckhead when we need more space?”
According to 2010 U.S. Census figures, Buckhead had one of the largest population increases in the city over the last decade, growing by more than 20 percent and 8,650 people. With that growth came crowded schools. Many of the APS schools with high enrollments are in Buckhead.
Brandon Elementary is 97 percent full, while Garden Hills Elementary is 102 percent full. Both are comfortable compared to E. Rivers, which is 121 percent full.
All of those students feed into Sutton, which is 150 percent full. Of the 10 elementary schools that are closing, most are on the Southside with an average capacity of 54.24 percent. Herndon Elementary School is only 32.1 percent full.
Students fill only 49 percent of the three middle schools slated to be closed. But that number is misleading, considering that Parks is 81 percent full, which magnifies the fact that Kennedy and Coan are practically empty at 33.1 and 34 percent.
“I think our problems were easier to solve,” Shea said.
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