Redistricting Meetings Set for New High School
The Fulton County School System announced three community meetings in April and May to address the redistricting process for a new high school under construction in Johns Creek. The school’s attendance zone will be created by modifying the boundaries of the existing North Fulton high schools. It is scheduled to open in August 2009.
About the redistricting process
Each time a redistricting effort is under way, the school system holds three rounds of meetings to gather information needed to draft a redistricting proposal that best meets the community’s needs. Fulton uses a unique process that encourages public discussion before developing a proposal. This allows the community to have maximum input on how the proposed attendance lines are created.
Three meetings will be held at Autrey Mill Middle School from 7-9 p.m. Although steps are being taken to ensure adequate parking, parents are encouraged to ride-share.
Round One – April 14
- School system staff outlines the redistricting process and establishes ground rules for facilitated, small-group input sessions.
- Participants move to small-group sessions and input is gathered related to the redistricting criteria.
- Prior to the next community forum, staff reviews the comments and applies the board-approved redistricting criteria to develop alternative attendance zone plans.
Round Two – May 5
- Staff presents alternative proposals for the 2009-10 high school attendance zones that were developed with established criteria and community input from the first forum.
- Community members comment on strengths and weaknesses of each plan in facilitated, small-group discussions.
- Prior to the next community forum, staff condenses the number of attendance zone alternatives based on public input.
Round Three – May 20
- Community members review and provide input on revised attendance zone alternatives in facilitated, small-group discussions.
- Staff uses comments to develop final attendance zone options for school board consideration.
Criteria used for developing redistricting proposal:
During the meetings, community members will review the school board’s redistricting criteria – primary and secondary – and can comment on residential development, traffic, previous redistricting and other issues relevant to the criteria used for redrawing attendance lines.
Primary Criteria
- Geographic proximity. Distance traveled using available routes of transportation.
- Capacity. Number of students who can be accommodated at the school, taking into account the number of classrooms and resource rooms needed for art, music, laboratories, English to Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL), special education and Talented and Gifted (TAG) programs.
- Projected enrollment. Number of students assigned to a school taking into account the future projected enrollment.
Secondary Criteria
When primary criteria indicate more than one option, the options should be evaluated on the basis of:
- Traffic patterns. Factors impacting accessibility of the school from all portions of the attendance zone, including travel time, traffic flow in the area, safe operation of school buses and other safety considerations.
- Previous rezoning. The school system seeks to avoid rezoning neighborhoods more than once during a three-year period if facility sizes and geographic distribution of student populations allow.
- Special programs. Special programs are those serving children with special needs that require use of additional space over-and-above a regular classroom. Where possible, the school system avoids setting attendance zones that would place a disproportionate number of special programs at a school.
- School feeder alignment. Where possible, consideration is given to the alignment of elementary, middle and high school attendance boundaries.
The Fulton County Board of Education is scheduled to review the new attendance zone proposal in June 2008. Final action is planned for September 2008. Changes in the attendance zones will go into effect in August 2009 with the opening of the new high school.