School enrollment
Underestimates
Cobb County 1,364 students
DeKalb County 1,268
Fulton County 624
Gwinnett County 2,059 students
Overstimate
Fayette County 1,800
Effects
Hiring
Cobb County hired 30 extra teachers. Gwinnett is hiring 10, and transferred 16 teachers and 10 support staff
Buildings
Fayette’s departing superintendent recommended closing three schools
Scheduling
Unexpected students meant some large classes in the first weeks of school. Districts shuffled teachers and students to even out the load
The first days back to school for thousands of metro Atlanta students were chaotic this year because of administrators’ miscalculation of how many teachers they would need.
Classes were overcrowded and schedules had to be changed to accommodate a steady stream of unexpected students.
Projecting enrollment is an inexact science, administrators admit. But they are rarely this far off.
Read today’s Atlanta journal constitution to see how the missed projections affected your local schools.
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