The Color Purple Dominates at GCPS Board Meeting

The young and the old made themselves heard Thursday at the Gwinnett County school board meeting in Suwanee.

Mark Adams, a parent in the Duluth school cluster, urged school board members to find "some other way to balance the system" during the public-speaking session. The meeting was dominated by interest in the proposed redistricting of the Peachtree Ridge and Duluth school clusters for the 2011-12 school year.

Adams pointed out that the plans now call for more transitional housing, such as that around Gwinnett Place Mall, to be brought into the Duluth cluster. "This would bring more single-parent families into a system that already has more than average," he said. "The girls are desperate to get attention from boys."

And a first-grader at B.B. Harris Elementary in the Duluth cluster gave his input, through a boundary-input form.

"Please let me stay at B.B. Harris . I live in Bromolow Woods," read the writing on the official GCPS boundary input form, which was shared with Suwanee Patch by a boundary committee member.

The controversy comes because of proposed plans to shift about 580 students from the Peachtree Ridge cluster to the Duluth cluster. Another 120 would be moved within the Duluth cluster because of that shift. Public input is being sought until April 1, and the school board is schedule to vote on the final plan April 21.

Duluth Mayor Nancy Harris, who drew a standing ovation for her statement, said one area planned for the Duluth cluster "has the highest crime rate in the Duluth ZIP code." (See attached video.)

Board member Mary Kay Murphy of Duluth has said she will not vote for the redistricting plan in its current form.

"Overall, it was a very good night," school board Chairman Dr. Robert McClure of Lilburn said.

For details about the planned redistricting, including a map, visit the GCPS website.

Fiscal update: Board members also received Thursday a report from the system's chief financial officer on fiscal year 2010. It was good news and bad news.

The good news: Gwinnett schools' "rainy day fund" is $109.8 million, up slightly from FY '09. CFO Rick Cost noted that the system has had to cut expenditures to balance its budget in the face of declining property tax revenue.

That's the bad news. The schools' main source of revenue is expected to continue to decline in coming years. The CFO estimates a 25 percent decline in tax revenue by FY 2013, chiefly due to foreclosures and appeals of property assessments.

The graduation rate is 84.7 percent, and the system's cost per pupil is $521, less than the statewide average. Gwinnett's expenditure per square foot is $90-103, meaning that the system is building 30 percent more classrooms than any other in metro Atlanta for the same amount of money.

The system's defined-benefit retirement plan is 103 percent funded, meaning that if it were shut down now, it would still be able to pay current and future benefits and still have funds remaining.