Fulton County Schools has proposed sending Spalding Drive Elementary students to either Woodland Elementary or Heards Ferry Elementary if the school is closed next year.
FCS released a draft redistricting plan ahead of its third and final public meeting on Monday night at Riverwood High School. View an interactive draft plan map here.
The Riverwood cafeteria was filled with parents from every elementary school in the Sandy Springs zone, most wanting Spalding Drive to remain open. However, FCS Deputy Chief Operations Officer Yngrid Huff said FCS policy restricted staff from discussing anything other than the redistricting proposal during the meeting.
That didn’t stop parents from speaking out.
“Closing our school will fundamentally disrupt our community and eliminate a high-performing school without justification,” the Save Spalding Drive Elementary School Parent Committee said in a statement prior to the meeting. “The closure will force families into inconvenient school placements, overcrowd remaining schools, and destabilize a well-established educational environment.”
Most of the 367 Spalding Drive students would attend Woodland Elementary under the redistricting plan. The small number of students who live west of Brandon Road NW would attend Heards Ferry Elementary, according to Tarika Peeks, FCS Executive Director of Operational Planning.
To make room for Spalding Drive students, some students now attending Woodland would attend Ison Springs Elementary. The new attendance zone line for Ison Springs would start north of the existing Spalding Drive attendance zone and north of Dalrymple Road but west of SR 400.
Peeks said the school district is considering closing Spalding Drive after its enrollment fell below 450 students and due to the condition of the aging building.
For redistricting, FCS policy sets primary criteria as geographic proximity, school capacity, and instructional needs, Peeks said. Secondary criteria includes traffic patterns, neighborhood rezoning history, and feeder alignments.
Huff answered several questions about open enrollment before breakout sessions began.
Open enrollment applications close on Jan. 15, one day after the Fulton School Board will see a draft proposal on closing Spalding Drive. Huff said FCS plans to run the lottery and notify students and their parents on Jan. 21 if they are selected for open enrollment to attend a school of their choice.
“We can’t really debate change of school assignment,” Huff said. “That’s not the purpose for tonight. We’re here to talk about the redistricting.”
FCS used breakout sessions with small groups of parents to dive deep into what they liked and didn’t like about the redistricting proposal. Parents brought up concerns such as if they live “on the line” separating attendance zones would their children have to attend a new school.
They also wanted to know if the clubs and teams their children belonged to at Spalding Drive would be dismantled.
FCS staff also didn’t have an answer for where Pre-K programs at Spalding Drive would be relocated, though parents were told it might be outside of Sandy Springs.
Parents also wanted to keep their children in feeder schools that would send them to their high school of choice. They didn’t like having their children redistricted to a school that would involve a long bus ride when another school was within walking distance.
Staff will present the draft proposal to the FCS school board on Jan. 14. If the school board consents to move ahead with the closure/redistricting process, they will make a final decision on Feb. 20.
In between those two meetings two public hearings would be held on the closure/redistricting plan.