The Fulton County Board of Education voted 4-3 to move forward with the closure process for Spalding Drive Elementary School during its Jan. 24 meeting.
Board members Katie Gregory and Michelle Morancie, representing parts of Sandy Springs, were joined by Franchesca Warren in voting against closing the school. The board had held three public meetings in 2024 to formulate redistricting maps.
Morancie said she did not support the closure of Spalding Drive Elementary because parents hadn’t had enough time to process the change, adding that the school district needs to learn to work collaboratively with families when these issues come up.
The school district should want to keep families engaged who are in the feeder system for the new North Springs High School that’s under construction, Gregory said. With redistricting, children who used to walk to school will now have to take long bus rides.
She said the school district might not be considering how the families bring extra value and the board should consider that in evaluating its policies.
The Jan. 24 vote moves the closure process forward. There will be public hearings at the board’s work session at the North Fulton Learning Center in Sandy Springs on Feb. 11, and at the regular meeting at the South Fulton Learning Center in Union City on Feb. 20, where the final decision to close schools will be made.
Spalding Drive parents fighting to keep the school open said they saw some progress with the vote and board comments.
“Tonight was the first time in a sense that parents were being heard in the process, based on the strong comments from board members Gregory and Morancie. It was reassuring that no board member made any comment or indication they were in favor of closure,” Steven Guy told Rough Draft Atlanta.
The parents who formed the Save Spalding Drive Elementary committee said they understand consolidation might be needed in the future. Guy said they were asking for five years to see what a post-COVID period looks like and to get more data and understand what is needed.
“We simply ask to be given this needed time to work with FCS on a good solution for the entire county on how to address declining enrollment – something I feel is continually lost in this effort,” he said.
Raymond J. Grote III told Rough Draft Atlanta the parents’ next step will be rallying the community , with the goal of having more than 100 parents and children at the Feb. 11 meeting, which they did for the board’s Jan. 15 meeting. They will have two minutes each to speak and will tell the board to “use us. Don’t lose us,” he said.
Superintendent of Schools Mike Looney said it doesn’t make sense to keep schools open when the cost of a replacement building would be less than or the same as building a new school. He said hallways in the schools are so narrow that people can put their hands out and touch each wall.
“Many of our older schools have so many turns and blind spots in where we can’t provide the safety that we can with the larger, more thoughtful design that contemplates school safety,” Looney said.
Spalding Drive Elementary is an aging facility with 347 students. Enrollment is projected to remain relatively stable, but below the 450-closure threshold for the coming years, FCS Director of Operational Planning Tarika Peeks told the school board.
Peeks said staff projects the Spalding Drive recommendation will impact 264 current kindergarten through grade four students by closure and 276 students by redistricting.
Before the vote, an amendment by Gregory was approved to change the redistricting map so students living in a triangle bounded by Mount Vernon Highway, Brandon Mill, and Roswell Roads would be redistricted to Heards Ferry instead of Woodward Elementary School. She said the change would keep those students in the feeder pattern for Ridgeview Middle School and Riverwood High School.
During the meeting, the board also approved on first reading moving forward with closing Parklane Elementary School in East Point.
