It is sad for our community that someone can play the race card and force our school system to divert precious resources from educating our students to fighting a nonsense battle. At the school board meeting where this was debated a very racially and ethnically diverse group of people spoke in favor of what became the final redistricting plan. This change moved the students to schools closer to their homes. It reduces transportation costs, makes it easier for students to participate in extracurricular events and relieves overcrowding. This sour grapes is just offensive.

Warren,

At the school board meeting where this was debated, very few people in attendance supported any of the BOE's proposed redistricting plans. I was there and I heard both sides overwhelmingly request the BOE to wait on this redistricting effort until after the overall plan was made public in June. Both sides stated they wanted to work together to find equitible solutions for all of our children.

Every child who attends public school is entitled to an equal education. Separate but equal was deemed unconstitutional 50 years ago by the United States Supreme Court.

Courtney and Diane, the cause of bussing has long ago been litigated and lost. You are advocating bussing these children that live very near Chesney Elementary School past B.B. Harris elementary School to Mason Elementary. Mason is farther away from their homes that the two other schools. The advocates of this are promoting economic equity. GCPS will certainly prevail in this situation.

Warren the lines were clearly drawn based on economics. And then even fine tuned based on who had shown up at the meeting to complain. They were not drawn by need. The location of the school building in the districts is irrelevant. You are advocating for kids to be driven past Chatt Elem. to attend Parsons ES four times further away?

This situation plus what GCPS did in redistricting all over this county is about to all come out and be exposed. When they look at the lines drawn for Simpson ES or Crews MS there is no excuse.

Courtney, Sounds like you and I are on the same page. You agree the lines should not be drawn to advocate bussing to achieve racial balance which is illegal. Check your geography. The Parsons students are not being driven past Chattahoochee. Just because you say it doesn't make it a fact. Thank you for proving my point.

Thank you also for confirming the problem you have with districting is economic rather than racial.

Warren,
Just one specific response to one part of your comment. At the school board meeting, 2 people who spoke in favor of the current redistricting map whom you describe as racially and ethnically diverse came from the Cresswell neighborhood. This neighborhood is less than a mile from Duluth High and about 6 miles from Peachtree Ridge. This doesn't reduce transportation costs in this case. These students will travel farther for extracurricular activities. Also, do you know the comparision in number of miles from the affected extended stay hotels to Peachtree Ridge compared to Duluth High School? It does not appear from the map that the mileage is less. This plan doesn't take enough students away from the Peachtree Ridge cluster to help them relieve the burden of overcrowding.

Warren,

The redistricting decision clearly discriminates against minority children who happen to be of low socioeconomic status. Why were only these children chosen to move and the vast majority are moving to a school that already has a 92% minority rate? The stated objective was to relieve the immediate overcrowding of HMS and PRHS. This redistricting effort never met this objective. Then tell me Warren, what is the objective?

Furthermore Warren, the IE2 Exceeds objectives for minority students who attend a school that has a primary minority student population is far lower for minority students than for the minority students who attend a school that is primarily Caucasian or majority.

Moving only minority students to a school that has lower expectations for them is clearly discriminatory. Could it be Warren that the unspoken objective was to ensure the schools in the PR district make their AYP goals?

Coutl it be the objective was to do what is best for the students? Let's review, faced with overcrowding in the Peachtree Ridge Cluster they redistricted an area that is geographically inconsistent with that cluster to the Duluth Cluster. This provides these students an opportunity to attend schools closer to their homes and reduces transportation time, costs and reduces the risk of being in an accident. They move them to a cluster with consistently higher SAT scores. Both clusters are extremely diverse so we can only be talking about degrees of diversity. I find it very incredible that 100% of the students moved were minority as Diane mentions above. The arguments above being made are to move more students rather than less. Both Diane and Courtney discuss economics. The school system should noi take economics into account in districting. The racism claims will get attention, but there will never be any evidence of any wrong doing here.

This nonsense complaint is casuing our federal government to borrow more money from China to spend on this investigation further placing our children's future in debt. It will cause GSPS to divert funds from the classroom to defend a nonsense claim. It tarnishes our reputation as a community to have these outlandish claims spread through the media. Ultimately when this is over a small rport will be made that GCPS prevailed and people won't even notice it. What they will remember is thes headlines with outlandish claims of racism making people think this community is not friendly to minorities. People will not want to live here or locate businesses here. There is nothing here that is positive for the students or the community.

Albert, please check google maps on your distances. From the Cresswell neighborhood to Peachtree Ridge is 2.8 miles according to google maps. It is not 6 miles as you say. It is 1.5 miles to Duluth High School. A little closer, but these students were NOT rezoned so this has no bearing on this charge of racial discrimination of the students that were rezoned.

Warren,
The numbers don't lie. The number of student's they offered us (Duluth) no where near addresses the overcrowding at Hull or Ridge, nor does it put a dent in the 400 empty seats at Duluth HS. What is does do is drop PTR free and reduced lunch numbers from 34% to 22% and pushes DHS numbers from 47% to over 50%. Now, if we become a Title One school, do you really think we're going to see that extra money for our new students? This was never about overcrowding. This was never about fair and equitable. This was about PTR protecting AYP and about protecting the proposed new middle school numbers. It's a shell game played by the all powerful BOE. We're just pawns. If they really wanted to do the right thing they would've sent Mason ES back to Duluth, retrofitted the Monarch school as a second MS and addressed the overcrowding at Berkeley Lake in the process. But that would mean they would actually have to work to make things fair and equitable - something J Alvin Wilbanks won't hear because he has his own agenda and favorites.

I don't see any racial discrimination in anything you are saying. The OCR won't either. If there was Mr. Wilbanks and the BOE would be against it and so would I. It is all about the neighborhoods you wanted to be rezoned but did not get. You want those neighborhoods to get higher socio-economic students into the Duluth cluster. That should not be the school system's goal. They didn't choose where people live. So because you lost the battle, you clouding the issue focing on the few students that were moved because they made the most sense geographically and you outrageously call it racial discrimination where none exists. The comment stream from your supporters above and even the article itself says Lynne Sycamore adds low income students to the agenda. You are calling on the OCR which is an organization to protect citizens and using it for inappropriate political purposes.

Warren,

The suit claims that lines were drawn by race. They were. That is a fact and GCPS is the one costing taxpayers money with their STUPID decisions. Not the people who filed this lawsuit.

Warren,
The BOE stated their goal in this whole mess was to relieve overcrowding. If that was their goal - they failed miserably. Look at how many MS and HS students are included in this plan. Not many. No where near enough to accomplish the stated goal. These students are eui-distant from Ridge and Duluth HS so geography is not an issue. Why then, this particular area? At the board meetings we (Duluth parents) attended, were Mason teachers fighting to keep these students in their cluster? NO. There wasn’t a teacher or parent fighting to keep them. Duluth said we will take them - and couple hundred more! We asked for areas closer to Duluth. The board re-drew the lines, only to change them at the 11th hour. Why? Because then, teachers and parents were up in arms. Heartfelt pleas to keep their students (along 120) in their cluster. Did anyone even mention the mall area kids? The answer is no. It’s unfortunate any students are being displaced. If more of their friends came with them, it wouldn’t have been such a shock. But this area was targeted. The board failed all of us in not working hard enough, researching long enough and simply doing a better job at their jobs. The BOE failed all of us.

Warren,

OCR determined there was enough evidence to warrant an investigation. The determination of discrimination does not have to prove intent but disparate impact. More than 55 years after Brown v. Board of Education, many minority students throughout the United States continue to struggle in racially isolated, underfunded, inadequate public schools.

I suggest you review the outcomes of earlier redistricting decisions within Gwinnett County that created "pockets" of educational poverty that have a huge disparate impact on minority students. GCPS draws lines that isolate minority students who also happen to be of low socioeconomic status i.e., Parkview vs Meadowcreek; Brookwood vs Central Gwinnett; and now following the same systematic approach, North Gwinnett vs Lanier and Peachtree Ridge vs Duluth.

In the next 20 years, 50% of the US population will be today's minorities. GCPS has a cynical view of minority children. This is reflected in their IE2 contractual agreement with the Georgia Department of Education whereby expectations for black and hispanic students who attend schools with predominatly minority populations are much lower than achievement expectations for black and hispanic children who attend schools that have a predominantly Caucasion population.

These types of decisions not only have detrimental effects on the specific children involved but also on the community at large when isolated groups do not have the opportunity to assimilate.

The GCPS board thinks they are above reproach and that they can do whatever they want to, without having to be accountable. The bad redistricting, the shady land deals -- this is just the tip of the iceberg. Someone has to scrutinize their work -- because they just ignore their constituents. The GCPS board brought this on themselves by ignoring 1200 input forms that were opposed to this redistricting. There are lots of examples in history where people thought law suits were "frivolous" -- but the outcome of those lawsuits changed the world. If the OCR didn't think there was something here, they would not have opened an investigation. The cost of this is nothing compared to the money the Feds waste on other things. It is my tax money, and I am totally fine with the Feds investigating this ridiculous farce of "a balanced student population".

I hope that all of you sign up to attend the Parent Leadership Institute, funded by the Just and Fair Schools Foundation just for parents in Gwinnett. It is an 8 month program and will bring together local, state and national leaders to talk about how parents can advocate issues. This is the ONLY leadership program in Georgia that will provide parents with the specific details surrounding Georgia's already highlighted school to prison pipeline. Get involved now. Go to Duluth Redistrict to find the program. If you don't find it, just friend me on facebook.

I'm well over 40, white, middle class ... just like each and every single member of our school board. Our board votes unanimously on all big issues (occasionally they may agree to let one member vote against) and do not always reflect their constituents who are not as white, nor rich, nor powerful. The problem is much bigger than one cluster's redistricting. There are only 5 school board members. Dan Seckinger (the one that was jailed for not paying child support?) has 6 high schools in his district. Murphy and Radloff are acting more like parrots than board members and do little more than smile, wave and vote yes to anything Alvin says. McClure may actually think he's a good man, but he publicly belittles others and I just haven't seen him act like the Christian he proclaims to be. Boyce may be okay, but she's outnumbered. I propose that 2 (or more) districts be added in 2012, term limits be set, and a system of oversight and accountability be established.

I AGREE ANNETTE!!!!! (And you don't look a day over 35!) More board members, term limits and oversight needs to be created... I'm as anti-government as you can get.... but these folks are not keeping our children's best interest as their main objective.

1. 10 years ago, the area around Gwinnett Place Mall was "snuck" into the PR cluster. At the time it was almost entirely business. However, when objections were made that the students in the area could attend Chesney Elementary we were told that it was more feasible to transport to Mason/Hull/PRHS because of the "traffic patterns" and the students would be bused against traffic. Many did not see it as a coincidence that the area was being considered for an "Atlantic Station" type development as a transportation hub.
2. In the past few years, there has been at least one petition and multiple verbal requests from the Peachtree Ridge Cluster to get rid of "that area". I think GCPS thought there might be people that would recall "traveling against traffic" or other reasons given for why the Gwinnett Place Mall area should not go to Duluth that they had them going to Harris (which displaced Harris students to Chesney). Since nobody brought up the old mall debate, they sent the mall area to Chesney.