Redistricting Map Closeup Shows Affected Areas

As Duluth city officials feared, a close-up of the initial Gwinnett County Public Schools redistricting map shows that the Duluth Cluster is getting back some apartments near Gwinnett Place Mall and none of the stable, affluent neighborhoods that it lost to the Peachtree Ridge Cluster during redistricting a decade ago. The proposed areas to be redistricted appear in yellow on the map.

GCPS officials explained the proposed redistricting to relieve overcrowding in the Peachtree Ridge Cluster involves seven schools and about 700 students in a briefing for Duluth and Suwanee Patch editors Monday (March 7). An initial map of the proposed redistricting was posted on the school system’s website Monday along with forms in English, Spanish and Korean for the public to provide input on the redistricting. Copies of the map are also available at the Duluth Cluster and Peachtree Ridge Cluster schools that would be affected by the redistricting. The redistricting would become effective with the 2011-12 school year.

According to Greg Stanfield, director of the GCPS Planning Department, the redistricting plan involves moving 270 students from Mason Elementary School in the Peachtree Ridge Cluster to Harris Elementary in the Duluth Cluster. About 130 students would be shifted from Hull Middle School in the Peachtree Ridge Cluster to Duluth Middle School in the Duluth Cluster. And 180 students at Peachtree Ridge High School would be redistricted into the Duluth High School attendance zone. 

This proposed redistricting area is bound by Interstate 85, Pleasant Hill Road, Davenport Road, property boundaries for unaffected neighborhoods around Oak Hampton Way and Salem Oak Way, and Singleton/Sweetwater Creek next to the Georgia Trail Golf Course. Some neighborhoods on Davenport Road are included in the area to be redistricted.

Duluth City Council members expressed concern at their Feb. 28 work session that the area proposed to be redistricted back into the Duluth Cluster includes apartments and less affluent areas than some of the neighborhoods that were shifted into the new Peachtree Ridge HS attendance zone in the previous redistricting. Mayor Nancy Harris asked that some of the more stable, affluent neighborhoods be returned to the Duluth Cluster.

In addition, an estimated 120 students in the Harris ES attendance zone would be redistricted into the Chesney Elementary School attendance zone, Stanfield said. Both schools are located in the Duluth Cluster. This area includes neighborhoods around Gravitt Road, Megan Road and Garland Way.

Clusters are comprised of the elementary schools and middle schools that feed into the high school that serves the area. The Duluth and Peachtree Ridge clusters each have several elementary schools, one middle school and one high school. Usually, all the schools in a cluster have the same mascot and support academic and sports teams in their clusters.

The following chart provided by GCPS shows the current enrollment and capacity of schools involved in the redistricting:

Cluster                     School                    Enrollment  Capacity

Duluth                       Chesney ES                        888            1150

Duluth                       Harris ES                            669             875

Duluth                       Duluth MS                        1761            1775

Duluth                       Duluth HS                        2404          2800

Peachtree Ridge    Mason ES                         1187            1200

Peachtree Ridge     Hull MS                            2409           1750

Peachtree Ridge     Peachtree Ridge HS    3226          2800

Boundary committees are being formed at the affected schools in both clusters. Headed by an educator and a community member, the committees will be holding informational meetings and collecting input forms to be submitted to the Planning Department. Deadline for submitting forms is April 1 

A map reflecting final redistricting recommendations will be posted on the GCPS website April 18. The Gwinnett County Board of Education is scheduled to vote on the redistricting April 21. A public hearing for comments from affected schools will precede the vote.

Existing policy would allow high school students currently attending Peachtree Ridge High School to choose whether to stay there or go to Duluth High School, said Sloan Roach, executive director of communication and media relations for Gwinnett County Public Schools. Students who attend a school outside their attendance zone would have to provide their own transportation, Roach said. The opportunity to choose high schools does not apply to students who would be freshmen next year, she said.

“Attendance zones are based on numbers and geography, not socio-economic factors,” Stanfield said. Geographic features include highways, railroads, rivers, and streams, he said. “We try not to split neighborhoods,” Roach added. “If it (a neighborhood) is crossed by a major highway, there are instances where that has occurred,” Stanfield clarified.

“Our numbers are on target,” said Roach, “they’ve been off by less than one percent.” The Gwinnett school system has “a history of (compiling) good data and using that data to make decisions,” she said.