UPDATED: GCPS Leaves Redistricting Map Unchanged

Updated 3:25 p.m., April 21, 2011

The Gwinnett County school system left unchanged Thursday the latest redistricting boundaries involving the Peachtree Ridge and Duluth school clusters. GCPS planners are "still reviewing" the map, released April 15, and will make "final recommendations" to the school board at Thursday's meeting, which begins at 7 p.m.

The board held a public hearing Wednesday night in Suwanee to hear reaction on the second proposal involving the clusters. The first map, released in March, met with overwhelming opposition from Duluth cluster supporters, including Duluth Mayor Nancy Harris.

The redistricting would go into effect in August for the 2011-12 school year. The map, included in the attachments, also is available on the GCPS website.

"The original plan was the best," Board Chairman Robert McClure told GCPS planners Thursday afternoon at a work session. "But the modifications we made were to do some things to keep people happy and in the schools they are in."

Asked Wednesday if delaying the vote until the May meeting is possible,  McClure said, "I'd be surprised if we tabled it that far out. ... Until we vote on it, it hasn't been voted on."

Wednesday's public hearing at the Suwanee headquarters had about 50 speakers, 36 listed from the Peachtree Ridge cluster.

It was the Suwanee area residents' first chance to speak about the revised plan, and they generally were unhappy.

Carlos Sanchez said the Cresswell subdivision in the Buford Highway corridor was "unfairly singled out." He noted that the subdivision originally was designed for the Peachtree Ridge cluster and that putting it into the Duluth cluster would "bring a lot of headaches ... in our logistics."

Two residents of Pheasant Trail in the Bunten Road area also spoke against the current plan.

"How did our subdivision become the exception?" said Jeanmarie Benson. Added William Whipple, "No other community along Bunten Road is being redistricted."

And Joylena Williams, who moved to the Peachtree Ridge area after Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans in 2005, said, "I hear all this about apartment complexes ... who are these people to judge everyone in apartment complexes?

"My husband is still in New Orleans ... I pulled myself up by my bootstraps. Mason (ES) embraced us. I loved what we had."

Jeanne Kosmala, a teacher at Mason ES, noted that "five days (of response time) is not enough. ... Don't cherry-pick neighborhoods based on the mayor's wishes."

That was a reference to Duluth Mayor Harris, who made a strong speech against the first redistricting proposal at the March school board meeting.

The latest plans would affect 602 students; 193 would move from Peachtree Ridge HS to Duluth HS, 129 from Hull MS to Duluth MS, and 280 from Mason ES to Duluth cluster schools. Gwinnett school officials say that Peachtree Ridge is 426 students over capacity, and Hull is 659 over capacity. The original plan called for moving over 700 students.

"Nobody wants to disrupt even one child," McClure said. "We're trying to use some empty classrooms (in the Duluth cluster)."

The area around Gwinnett Place Mall, heavy with transitional housing, still is a sore spot with Duluth cluster supporters.

"We can't afford the additional stress on our system," Duluth HS backer Dianne Ogden said.