Superintendent to Make Redistricting, Closure Recommendations Tonight

DeKalb County schools chief Ramona Tyson will offer the school board tonight her recommendation on a controversial school redistricting and closure plan that could have significant ramifications for parents and students throughout the North Druid Hills-Briarcliff area.

Tyson, the DeKalb County School System's interim superintendent, will give her opinion at the board's regularly scheduled meeting in the board room at system headquarters, 1701 Mountain Industrial Blvd., Stone Mountain, at 6pm. Her recommendation will be given during the superintendent's report, which occurs relatively early in school board meetings before it moves on to action items.

The meeting, which is certain to attract an overflow audience, will also include a limited number of public comments at the beginning of the meeting.

The school system's proposed plans, authored by consultant MGT of America, seek to redraw attendance zones at many schools while closing up to 14 others to reduce more than 11,000 empty seats countywide. School system officials say they lose state dollars each year due to the excess seats.

MGT's proposal–issued to the school board early last month–offered two plans: a "centralized" and "decentralized" model. The decentralized model was labeled as less disruptive, however, to the rest of the system. It would leave the district with 6,769 open seats and affect 12,900 students. The centralized model would leave the district with 5,866 open seats and affect 16,100.

In the North Druid Hills-Briarcliff area, only has been chosen for closure. However, it's recommended to be closed in both of MGT's plans, and most of the local community's energy has been focused on minimizing the number of students who would be moved to new schools during redistricting. The plans recommend attendance zone changes at several local schools in the - feeder pattern. Parents from both of those schools and others, including , , and other elementary schools have protested the changes at public meetings the school system held countywide over the last month.

A group of parents from the Lakeside High community even banded together to draw up alternative plans they submitted to the school system. They'll learn tonight whether the plan influenced Tyson's recommendation.

Tyson's recommendation won't be the final step, however. The board will hold two public hearings regarding Tyson's recommendation on March 1 and 3, and the board will vote March 7.