After hearing thousands of complaints, DeKalb County interim’s superintendent amended the school system’s controversial redistricting plan, proposing that eight schools close, not 14.
On Monday night, the district unveiled the revamped plan, which calls for Atherton, Glen Haven, Gresham Park, Peachcrest, Medlock and Sky Haven elementary schools, Avondale Middle School and Avondale High School to close in August. The board is scheduled to approve the closures March 7.
Although Avondale Middle and High are closing as neighborhood schools, part of the high school will remain open as the DeKalb School of the Arts.
The schools spared were Livsey, Rock Chapel, Bob Mathis, Toney, Wadsworth Magnet and Kittredge Magnet. However, those schools -- and others -- could close as early as summer 2012, interim Superintendent Ramona Tyson said.
Tyson recommended the changes after reviewing residents’ complaints, concluded that the process was moving too fast, there was not enough financial data and the magnet programs shouldn’t be centralized.
“Is there a plan that makes everyone happy? No,” Tyson said. “These difficult decisions will allow the school system to redirect in the first year alone $12.4 million toward student achievement.”
The new plan means the district will save the aforementioned total, rather than the proposed$15 million annually.
The new plan also means less students will be transferred to new schools next year, 8,989 compared to 15,000 students, school officials said. Under the revised plan, the magnet programs will not be relocated.
The redistricting plan is needed to remove 11,300 empty seats to generate more state funding. However, under the new plan, the district will eliminate 5,125 seats and still have 6,185 empty seats.
“We still have a lot of work to do,” Tyson said.
Last week, the state Department of Education said the district could receive $3.5 million more annually to build and renovate schools if the district closed more schools.
Molly Bardsley, a mother of three, implored the board to close more schools. “Every dollar spent on half-empty buildings, is a dollar we can’t afford,” she told the board. “Doing the right thing isn’t always the popular thing. Please make the difficult choice tonight.”
Not every one had the same views as Bardsley. The school board attempted to quiet some of the rallying parents by posting a sign that said anyone who carried signs or noisemakers would be ejected and prosecuted.
An extra police presence didn’t prevent the more than 300 residents in attendance from promoting their schools. Another 50 people waited in the hallway after police closed the meeting because of fire codes.
The president of the Organization of DeKalb Educators held a Glen Haven first-grader as he talked about school closures. Connie Boon, mother of a Sky Haven student, listed her school’s accomplishments.
Khalid Muhammad Ali Farrakhan lined up four little girls, holding photos of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. and President Barack Obama, as heasked the board to leave “black” schools alone.
“You want to close Glen Haven and 13 other schools that house black children," he told the board. "You should bequeath the schools to the black community. Just leave the school buses, the utilities to us and we will take care of the rest."
Other residents and some board members have criticized the plan for targeting primarily African-American schools in south DeKalb. Only one of the schools on the closure list, Medlock, is in north DeKalb.
However, south DeKalb houses some of the neighborhoods in metro Atlanta hardest hit by the housing slump and foreclosures.
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