All this talk about new high schools and redistricting has gotten me thinking: Are we even ready to do this? Because I have a feeling that we are not. Cross Keys High School students were redistricted to Chamblee Charter High... Continue Reading →
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I have also been told that "people in Ashford Park don't spend $700,000 on a house for their kids to go to Cross Keys." I think that we need to truly examine ourselves and our district if we are going to continue to let these types of reasons be the reasons why we decide not to redistrict or rebuild in certain areas. I believe if people want to spend a lot of money for their children's education, then they are welcome to attend private school.
I mostly understood the request for redistricting to be a request for schools close-by (i.e. Chamblee MS, Chamblee HS, Ashford Park ES) to receive students, since they are within the same cities and communities of our Cross Keys cluster students. I think this is why many parents are voicing frustrations and concerns about how the district decided to redistribute the students.
One cluster should not bear the effects of overcrowding while another cluster is protected from this because of the way that the attendance zone lines are drawn. Under the current options, the Cross Keys cluster continues to add trailers while the Chamblee High and Chamblee Middle are projected to receive ZERO.
According to the charts above, all of the elementary schools in the cluster have been over-capacity since 2012 (2010 if we count the chart that is no longer available on the school district's website).
The 2014-2015 numbers for FTE (full-time enrollment) were just over 730 students (with capacity for approximately 760). There is also plenty of room to place a couple quads (4-8 temporary classrooms with a hallway and restroom facilities) on the grounds in order to accommodate this expanded enrollment -- without taking away from the community garden or the school basketball courts.
If we want to figure out why Cross Keys is a “priority” school, I believe some of the reasons can be explained in this post. When students don’t feel valued, when students can’t simply come to school and study uninterrupted by chaos, they are more inclined to skip or drop out.
First and foremost, in August 2016, send students in the Cross Keys cluster to Chamblee Charter HS to fill the roughly 300 empty seats available there because this makes the most efficient use of space in existing buildings. If you sent students who were incoming freshman, you could minimize disruption to student and family lives.
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