Parents Cheer When Told Fulton Schools Redistricting Map Will Change

Parents participating in the final round of redistricting public meetings Wednesday night broke out into cheers and applause when they were told the map presented would be changed again.

"The map that you see tonight is not the final map," said Yngrid Huff, head of the Operational Planning department.

Huff said staff took comments provided during the round two meeting, in the 750 emails received and numerous neighborhood petitions to create the attendance zones for high schools and middle schools, following the policy and criteria set by the Fulton County Board of Education.

"We are here tonight to get your feedback on that map," Huff said.

"We tried our best in round two to address as many comments we could," she said.

Huff said approximately 2,200 students will be affected under the final draft plan.

The process does not end after Wednesday's meeting at Alpharetta High School, Huff said. Parents and other community members can go online starting at 8 a.m. today, April 14, and add comments about the plan to the record. The online commenting will be closed off on Monday, April 18.

The Operational Planning staff will take comments from the breakout meetings and online comments to make more changes before presenting a redistricting plan to the school board at its May 11 work session. A vote on the attendance zones is scheduled at the board's June meeting.

Huff said the school board could make its own changes to the plan based on community comments.

But even after the plan is approved, it won't go into effect immediately. The new attendance zones won't be adopted until Fall 2012.

The primary focus of the redistricting meetings has been the opening of the new high school on Bethany Bend and Cogburn Road in 2012.

"Even if we make middle school changes, we will not change those zones until the following school year," Huff said.

No changes are planned for elementary school attendance zones even if they are needed. Huff said staff realized the school system did not have available capacity at existing schools to change those boundaries. The numbers showed a need for a new elementary school in North Fulton.

"We are holding any elementary changes until we can bring on additional capacity in North Fulton," she said.

The school system has available land at its Freemanville Road site that also is scheduled for a new middle school, she said.

The number of meeting participants grew in each round of meetings, with 432 parents signing in at the first meeting and 772 at the second meeting. A count hadn't been made at the third meeting, but Huff acknowledged the larger crowd.

"There are a lot of new faces here tonight," she said.