As Monday Redistricting Vote Approaches, Some Parents Still Fighting Changes

A month ago, a much larger chorus would likely have joined Karen O'Leary in the DeKalb County Board of Education's meeting room Tuesday, asking for more changes to the school system's school redistricting and closure plans. She represented one of three schools in the North Druid Hills-Briarcliff area still pleading with the board to limit the school system's plans for the area.

"Last year, we were fighting to keep [Elementary School] open, but tonight we're fighting to stay in the [Elementary School] cluster," she told the board. "This will be a minor adjustment. We in Springdale Heights don't want to pull our kids out of the county school system."

But parents and PTA members said this week that as they continue to ask for changes to the redistricting plan, school system officials and board members are growing less receptive – at least as far as changes in northern DeKalb County are concerned. The board is scheduled to vote on the changes Monday.

"We can't seem to get a straight answer from anybody," said Nicki Sinkler, co-president of Laurel Ridge Elementary's PTA. "The board and [interim Superintendent Ramona Tyson] and her staff are basically pushing it off on each other."

Under Tyson's recommended plan released last month, 70 Laurel Ridge Elementary students would be shifted to . It would also absorb more than 50 students from Medlock Elementary, which, again, is slated for closure. But the school can accommodate the Medlock students without shedding any of their existing students, Sinkler said.

Laurel Ridge Elementary parents and PTA members have tried to meet with system officials and board members, including Don McChesney, she said. Tyson has not responded and McChesney "basically said he would not make the motion to change anything," Sinkler said.

McChesney said Sinkler mischaracterized what he told the school's parents.

"We have a process here. It's a very public process," he said. "They're asking me to step outside the process to scuttle the process, and that's not what a good board member does. ... I have told them that I have taken their specific argument straight to the top on more than one occasion. The thing I say is, 'Let it lie.' Mrs. Tyson knows what the argument is. Now let's see what she's going to do with it."

Tyson's recommendation could change before it goes before the school board Monday, he said. But no matter what, some parents are going to be unhappy, said Jeff Dickerson, a school system spokesman.

"I don't think that at any point the school district has avoided public input or failed to listen to their concerns," he said. "We have to draw a line some place, and parents who are on the other side of that line are not going to be happy about it."

Many Medlock Elementary's parents have resigned themselves to the likelihood that the school's closing. Now, some of them are fighting to make sure they go to Laurel Ridge Elementary instead of Avondale Elementary School where 73 Medlock Elementary students are slated to go next year, O'Leary said. Some parents have said they won't let their children attend Avondale Elementary, she said – even if it means placing them in private school. 

"We do want our children to remain in the system. But I will tell you specifically that parents in my neighborhood, which includes seven children, have said, 'We will not send our children there,'" O'Leary said. "The redistricting would be easier if all the schools were equitable in the first place. And that's why everybody is scrambling."

Parents at have also been pursuing similar changes. Ninety students there are slated to be shifted to Briar Vista Elementary School.

No matter what changes are recommended, one of the biggest mistakes the school system made was waiting 15 years to redistrict and close schools, McChesney said.

"We hope we will never get into that situation again," he said. "This probably should have been done three superintendents ago. Now, why that didn't happen I don't know."

O'Leary said she's ready for the entire issue to wrap up.

"There couldn't have been a bigger disruption in all our lives," she said. "To say that I've been obsessed with this issue is an understatement."

The school board will meet Monday, 1701 Mountain Industrial Blvd., Stone Mountain, at 6pm.