Proposals to shift school zones in Buckhead and elsewhere in the Atlanta Public School system are generating a lot of tense discussions among parents, but Atlanta Public Schools officials stress the proposals now on the table will change.
Currently the school system is seeking input, and parents are giving them plenty of it. There have been several meetings around the community, including a Nov. 30 meeting at North Atlanta High School with APS consultants and a Dec. 12 meeting attended by members of the Board of Education and Atlanta City Council.
Some of the parents who attended the meeting at North Atlanta High School learned their children might be attending different schools. Students at E. Rivers Elementary might be zoned to Bolton Academy, and some Bolton students might be zoned to Scott Elementary. Another suggestion moves students in the Pine Hills neighborhood to Garden Hills Elementary instead of Sarah Smith Elementary.
Some parents have openly grumbled that they’d sell their property and leave if their child has to attend a different school. The demographic studies are attempting to balance a school system that has dwindling enrollment in some schools and exploding enrollment in others.
The consultants, Cropper GIS, McKibben Demographic Research and Bleakly Advisory Group, stressed that the maps were just suggestions.
“The constructive feedback is key to us, but it’s very helpful for you,” company President Matthew Cropper said. “We feel we don’t know how many of the people in the crowd have the same feeling. If you put this on a piece of paper then we can quantify. So it’s important that you fill out the forms and be as constructive and detailed as possible.”
It was a point APS Superintendent Erroll Davis stressed as well. He said nothing had been decided.
“We are at the very beginning of a three-month process,” Davis said. “What you will see this evening is essentially demographic data. It relates to cost. It relates to capacity. It does not reflect any of your concerns.”
Davis left the North Atlanta High meeting before the presentation and the consultants didn’t answer questions during the presentation. Parents who had hoped to ask questions interrupted the presentation, seeking additional information.
Cropper said the goal was to balance the schools with dwindling enrollment with schools that are overcrowded.
“These guys are only looking at the numbers,” said Kathy Smith, a Bolton parent.
Smith noted that Scott, unlike Bolton, does not have an International Baccalaureate program, something parents are invested in. “My understanding is the human element has not been seen. This is the point where everyone who has a dog in this fight needs to start talking.”
Elizabeth Spangler and Erika Gross, two E. Rivers parents, said moving to Bolton would increase their commute times. They said it would actually be closer for them if their neighborhood zone shifted to Morris Brandon Elementary. Gross said parents were told that Bolton is the next closest school to E. Rivers that has the capacity to handle additional students.
Spangler and Gross spent several minutes pointing out their concerns to the APS consultants.
Spangler and Gross, like the other parents, said they’ve both invested time and effort at their school.
“I think the biggest concern is that E. Rivers is the most severely affected,” Gross said. “We’re literally just getting decimated.”
Some parents showed up at a Buckhead Council of Neighborhoods meeting on Dec. 8 to ask questions about the redistricting efforts.
Robert Boyanovsky and Peter Wurm, two parents of children at Sarah Smith Elementary, said they didn’t understand concerns about capacity problems at Sarah Smith.
Boyanovsky pointed to numbers showing Sarah Smith’s enrollment is projected to decline in 2016.
“Why are they rezoning us out of this school that doesn’t have a long-term capacity constraint?” Boyanovsky asked.
Wurm said parents were surprised when they heard about the school board’s plans.
“This kind of came up all of a sudden,” he said. “We were blindsided.”
At the Dec. 12 meeting, District 4 School Board Member Nancy Meister stressed that the plans are preliminary and said, “Panic is unnecessary.”
“This effects people’s lives and I completely understand that,” Meister said. “This is a starting point and things will change.”
City Councilwoman Yolanda Adrean, District 8, said the school board needs to make sure it’s thinking about other stakeholders besides students’ parents. She said business leaders, and public works departments need to be involved as well.
“We’re all sharing the same infrastructure,” Adrean said. “ … It’s a mistake to just consider the parents of children as the only stakeholders.”
City Councilman Howard Shook, District 7, said he’ll be keeping an eye on proposals to build a new middle school and a new elementary school in his district.
“I think I was pleased to hear just how preliminary these plans are and just how important it is for parents to provide input,” Shook said.
Leslie Churchill, the education liaison for the Buckhead Council of Neighborhoods, attended the Dec. 12 meeting and said she understands the current discussion about rezoning is a “starting point.”
“I think it’s important to get the City Council on board and informed,” she said.
__________________________________________
What’s next:
Early February: Two alternative proposals will be presented to the public for additional input. These proposals will reflect the public input on the first proposals.
March: Proposals will be delivered to the school superintendent.
May: School board can approve zoning proposals.
