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Schools

CCSD Releases South Cobb Redistricting Maps

Sky View Elementary is set to close in both redistricting options.

After speculating all summer, students, parents and teachers have a better idea of how South Cobb elementary schools will be redistricted for the 2012-2013 and 2013-2014 school years.

Tuesday the Cobb County School District posted two maps to its website each outlining the redistricting alternatives for elementary schools in the south part of the county. Both alternatives propose closing in Mableton. They also propose closing as a traditional elementary school. The , a special education program that is currently located at Fitzhugh Lee School, would be relocated to the old Brown Elementary site.

The maps split the southern portion of the county into halves: Phase 1, which includes the schools west of South Cobb Drive, and Phase 2, which encompasses the schools east of South Cobb Drive.

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The Phase 1 implementation would take effect August 2012. Since the and the addition will not be completed until 2013, they and other schools east of South Cobb Drive were grouped for Phase 2 implementation, which would take effect August 2013.

CCSD will hold meetings to discuss the two alternatives and to get input from citizens. The meeting for Phase 1 schools is set for Tuesday, Oct. 25 at at 6:30 p.m. The meeting for Phase 2 schools will be the following evening at at 6:30 p.m.

Find out what's happening in South Cobbwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

In addition to attending public forums, concerned citizens can share their input on the public comment wall at the CCSD redistricting webpage or by sending an email to redistricting@cobbk12.org.  

CCSD stressed on its website that after all input is heard, a final redistricting map will be developed that may not be an exact replication of either map, but a hybrid of the two. The final redistricting proposal and map will be presented to the Board of Education for a vote in February 2012.

Here is a small sampling of comments left by parents on the district's redistricting website:

Erin Stack | Sky View
I am very disappointed by the districts decision to close our school and the way this plan was presented and developed. None of the comments have been addressed nor have the students themselves been considered in this plan. At no point was the educational value of these larger schools presented to the parents nor were any comments addressed in any forum. For all the discussion of keeping our communities involved with our schools, by closing our school you are destroying our small community.

Dee | Mableton
Amazing how Mableton will end up having to take on a entire school while Nickajack and Teasley remain basically untouched. The lines on both maps make no sense with the overlaps.

Ima | Sanders
It would be helpful to have the final estimate of students versus capacity on each of these maps. Certainly easier than sitting with a calculator and manually adding things up - or is that why it's been left off? I am sure this information was taken into consideration when drawing the lines for each map, so it shouldn't be too difficult to provide it online so people can see the potential impact more easily.

Parent | Mableton
At the round one meeting I attended, two of the main criteria laid out for rezoning were not transporting children over major roads and cleaning up the feeder patterns so an entire elementary school will feed into a middle school instead of splitting elementary school students into separate middle schools. The proposed lines for the new Mableton do not follow either of these. Half of the area drawn from for the new Mableton will have to cross over Veteran's Memorial, a major road, and Mableton will now feed into two middle schools. Why weren't CCSD's own criteria followed when drawing the lines for the new Mableton Elementary?

Phase 1 Schools

Public Forum on October 25th

Phase 2 Schools

Public Forum on October 26th

Austell Primary (Austell East K-5)

Argyle

Austell Intermediate (Austell West K-5)

Belmont Hills

Birney

Brown

Bryant

Green Acres

Clarkdale

Harmony Leland

Clay

King Springs

Hollydale

LaBelle

Mableton

New Smyrna

Milford

Milford

Riverside Intermediate and Primary

Nickajack

Russell

Norton Park

Sanders

Teasley

Sky View

 

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