CCSD begins Round 3 of redistricting process

The Cobb County School District has moved into Round 3 of its elementary school redistricting process for South Cobb. CCSD has unveiled a new map that is an amalgamation of on the redistricting website and at informational meetings for the affected communities.

“We’ve incorporated all the feedback we got on the wall and in the Phase 1 and 2 meetings,” said Doug Goodwin, CCSD communications specialist.

In the new draft plan, South Cobb is divided into two implementation phases. Phase 1 would take affect Aug. 2012, while Phase 2 would take affect in Aug. 2013 at the time the construction was completed on the new Smyrna Elementary School and the Nickajack Elementary School addition.

CCSD representatives will present the Round 3 draft plan at a combined meeting for community members from both implementation phases at South Cobb High School, 1920 Clay Road in Austell, at 6:30 p.m. Wed. Dec. 7.

Goodwin explained that the Round 3 draft plan may change depending on the feedback received from the community in the coming weeks. Once this feedback has been taken into account, CCSD representatives will present a finalized plan to the Cobb County School Board in February.

Community members are encouraged to provide their feedback by sending an email to redistricting@cobbk12.org. Feedback can also be left at the Cobb Schools redistricting site, where district officials have set up a public commenting wall, similar to a Facebook wall.

Some of the recent comments include:

Much better plan | Nickajack

Plan C is much better than Plan A. Plan C addresses the following issues, which dominated the previous board discussions: 1) keeps families in the school that is within walking distance, e.g., King Valley and Keeneland Farms at King Springs; 2) alleviates Title I concern for Nickajack. Solving these problems should trump the capacity issues raised by the previous poster. Note that Teasley's overcrowdedness will be addressed after the current redistricting process, as the CCSD strongly alluded to in the last public forum. And King Springs' 78 students overcapacity is not significant enough to abandon plan C for the two reasons above. The previous poster has some nerve to suggest that Nickajack should have more students because it is 33 students undercapacity when Nickajack faces significant logistical problems having 1000+ students already, no matter the number of additional classrooms.

Overcrowding | King Springs

I don't understand how we can be ok with adding 8 new classrooms to Nickajack and end up presenting a plan that is 33 under capacity, yet keep King Springs at 78 over capacity and Teasley at 244 over capacity. Plan A brought King Springs down to only 10 over capacity and NO portables (a key point). Why doesn't Plan C incorporate Plan A (greatly reduces King Springs overcrowding and also keeps Nickajack with no portables), and move some of Teasley to New Smyrna (opening with 100+ under capacity). Plan C does nothing to eliminate overcrowding at Teasley, keeps overcrowding and portables at King Springs, keeps New Smyrna under capacity and moves Nickajack to under capacity. Two huge school construction projects to add capacity (New Smyrna and Nickajack), yet a proposal that keeps these two schools under capacity while burdening King Springs and Teasley, and continuing the need for portables. It just doesn't make sense to me.

Keep Clarkdale Together | Clarkdale

Please consider keeping all of the Clarkdale families together. These families and students have been through so many transitions and have shown flexibility over the past two years. The excitement of being able to be together in a new school has made the sacrifices that have been made worth it, but now there is a possibility that some of these students will not attend the new school. Clarkdale has more than enough room to accomodate the few neighborhoods that have been redistricted to Austell. Please consider keeping all of the Clarkdale students together.