GWINNETT COUNTY, Ga. — A unanimous vote to shuffle students will send hundreds of Gwinnett County students to new schools next fall.
The superintendent's plan to alleviate overcrowding will shuffle about 500 students from the Peachtree Ridge High School cluster to Duluth cluster schools, which are under capacity. The vote came after three map revisions and two heated public hearings.
Just before the Thursday-night vote, the Gwinnett County board made a last minute change to its latest map. There will be 200 less students moving to the Duluth cluster than initially proposed.
Before the vote, some parents complained the revised redistricting plan does not achieve balance, in assigning low-income neighborhoods evenly to both school clusters.
"We believe that the children that are involved in the redistricting effort are being discriminated against," parent Lynne Sycamore told Channel 2's Kerry Kavanaugh.
Gwinnett Approves Controversial Redistricting Plan
She said low-income students were being lumped into Duluth High School.
Parents had mixed feelings about the final vote.
"[I'm] relieved and glad that my kids are going to the school that we moved into the district for," said parent Michelle Doss.
WSB-TV Redistricting Map Doss' first and third graders will get to stay at Mason Elementary School because of the revised plan.
Some parents said their voices weren't being heard.
"They've taken two of the communities that were here last night and put them back in Peachtree Ridge and yet, my community is still being moved to Duluth High School, and I'm not happy about it," said Rob Bowell.
Bowell lives in the Woodbridge subdivision, which he learned last Friday, will now be rezoned to Duluth schools.
"Redistricting is never easy and always challenges us to make the process as transparent as possible," said superintendent J. Alvin Wilbanks.
WSBTV
