Schools

GCPS Passes Latest Redistricting Plan

Board votes to move 505 students from Peachtree Ridge to Duluth cluster.

Updated 5:15 a.m., April 22, 2011.

The Gwinnett County school board Thursday voted unanimously to move 505 students from the Peachtree Ridge cluster to the Duluth cluster for the 2011-12 school year.

After Wednesday's public hearing, GCPS decided to allow Cresswell and North Cardinal Lake subdivisions to remain in the Peachtree Ridge cluster. No other changes were made Thursday. Β The final map is here.

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The remainder of the April 15 blueprint for the 2011-12 school year remains the same. The system is moving students to relieve overcrowding at Peachtree Ridge High and Hull Middle, and to use empty classrooms in the Duluth cluster.

The final student breakdown: Peachtree Ridge HS to Duluth HS: 158 students; Hull MS to Duluth MS, 106 students; Mason ES to Harris HS, Chesney ES and Chattahoochee ES, 241 students.

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"Most of the time, people don't like to move from the school they are in," Board Chairman Robert McClure said Thursday. He said at an earlier work session that the initial redistricting plan in March was the best plan, but changes were made "to do some things to keep people happy and in the schools they are in."

Those subdivisions were left out of initial redistricting plans in March, but included in the April 15 remapping after overwhelming opposition from Duluth forced GCPS officials to redo their initial plans. The final number of 505 students is down from the initial total of 715.

Some speakers at Wednesday's public hearing from those subdivisions protested being singled out in the redistricting.

"Our staff has done a yeoman's job in pulling our feedback together," Gwinnett Schools Superintendent J. Alvin Wilbanks said Thursday. "No matter what school a child will attend, he will be well educated."

Wilbanks said at Wednesday's public hearing that any changes to the April 15 map would be posted on the GCPS Web site by 1 p.m. Thursday, but the changes were not announced until the 6:30 p.m. public hearing Thursday. Also, the board's vote was moved up Thursday's agenda, ahead of several people who were registered to speak.


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