Schools

Many Attend Town Hall on Redistricting

Roswell's Town Hall on the redistricting of area schools was attended by concerned parents and residents throughout North Fulton County.

The bleachers were full and it was standing room only by the time Roswell Mayor Jere Wood’s Town Hall meeting on school redistricting at Hembree Park actually began last night.

Several hundred residents from throughout North Fulton turned out to express their concern and convey their ideas about the way Fulton County Schools has approached school redistricting in the area to accommodate the new school being built at in Milton.

“Our goal here tonight is to send a message to the school board,” said Wood, who invited the board but was turned down, although State Senator John Albers (District 56), and Milton Councilwoman Julie Zahner-Bailey did join him. “We want to hear what that message should be.”

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Nervous about losing the “legacy” and “tradition” of Roswell and Milton high schools, the general consensus was “don’t fix what’s not broken.” Out of a concern that performance scores and sport standings would drop with redistricting, many spoke of a desire to ask for the high schools to be left as is, however, others pointed out that such a goal wasn’t realistic.

A Roswell resident said he couldn’t imagine “nothing” happening, but that he hoped the changes would keep the schools at the level of excellence they are now, if not make them better.

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Real estate agent Cathi Lund recalled a recent withdrawal of interest from a potential Brookfield West buyer when they heard about the redistricting.

Another resident pleaded with the crowd to focus on an argument that may actually gain some traction: the heavily congested Crabapple intersection. Adding more vehicles to the already overcrowded roads at the intersection hardly seems a valid option.

“It’s the one weapon we have,” she said, pointing out the fact that good ideas may not be heard if redistricting naysayers pick the wrong argument. She reminded them that the school board has long heard complains from parents regarding overcrowding issues at both schools, so now to pretend those issues don’t exist will make the board “tune us out.”

The school system knows that Roswell and Milton are overcrowded and while the enrollment numbers are supposed to stay fairly level for the next few years, overcrowding was projected to become far worse by 2017 if the new school wasn’t built.

At the community meeting of school board member Linda Schultz, yesterday morning, she displayed a chart showing current and forecasted enrollment for area schools. The numbers showed both Milton and Roswell were each over crowded by several hundred students, with approximately 2,400 students at Roswell and 2,700 students at Milton currently.

But residents at last night’s meeting worried large portions of cities and whole neighborhoods that anchor specific areas would be moved into a different district. Their worry increased knowing that the school system does not take driving distance into account.

“I don’t want kids driving any further than they have to at 16-years-old,” said one parent.  

Zahner-Bailey hopes the board looks carefully at growth patterns and the potential for an economy that’s predicted to bounce back before they uproot a tremendous amount of students in order to fill Bethany Bend.

The gym broke into a loud applause when she said, “We shouldn’t assume the new school needs to be at full capacity by day one.”

Flyers handed out by some local residents urged the board to change the way they determine redistricting, which will affect elementary and middle feeder schools, as well as the high schools.

But Schultz - who didn’t attend the town hall because she holds her own community meetings and sticks to board-sponsored meetings once the redistricting process begins – told attendees of her earlier meeting that to “change [criteria] mid-stream would be a nightmare,” although she is willing to look at redistricting guideline changes in the future.

“We need to stick to the current criteria right now though,” she said.

Schultz urged parents to not only tell the board what they don’t like about the maps, but also what they do like.

The school system will release its initial maps at the tonight. There will be three alternatives given, but the school’s planning department is reluctant to say how many maps that will actually include. The meeting will take place at Alpharetta High School at 7 p.m. Participants will meet for a general session before breaking into small groups to give their feedback. That feedback will help the system determine the final one or two redistricting maps which will be presented to the board for approval.


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