East Paulding Middle School Redistricting - Residents against attendance zone change
- by: Concerned residents of close in proximity subdivisions: Thornwood, Pickett's Mill, Pickett's Plantation
- recipient: Paulding County School District/Board
As Petitioners, we respectfully request that the Board create a McClure Middle School attendance zone that: 1) retains the neighborhoods along Dallas/Acworth Highway including but not limited to Thornwood, Pickett's Mill, and Pickett's Plantation and 2) maintain school attendance for these students to the feeder school, North Paulding High School.
The following items support our opposition to redistricting to East Paulding Middle School:
1. Of the 479 middle schools in Georgia, East Paulding Middle is ranked 359th and McClure is ranked 82nd. EPMS' Low performing CRCT scores more than 20 points lower than McClure. High risk environment due to 10 felony offenses in the past year, including 6 felony drug and 4 felony weapons violations.
2. The simplistic districting line along Hwy 92/Dallas Acworth Hwy has always been in place and creates a logical county dividing line.
3. The current distance to East Paulding and McClure is each approx 8 miles from all of these subdivisions. However, land has been purchased and plans finalized for Old Stilesboro, which becomes Cedarcrest Blvd to go straight through from Dallas Acworth Hwy to Cedarcrest and exiting across from Seven Hills, Subdiv, thus decreasing the distance to McClure by approx 2-3 miles.
4. Sending the students in these subidivisions, which are approx 20 each year, to McClure Middle School and then feeding them next door into North Paulding High School, is more logical than busing these students a further distance to a middle school and then sending them across the county three years later to a high school where they will have fewer friends and disrupting their social comfort zone at this crucial age will mean a more difficult transition to high school. And thus ultimately affecting their academic success as well as putting their graduating ability into jeopardy. We want to give them every opportunity to succeed, not every obstacle to fail.
5. If transportation continues to be at issue, we have a solution: There are currently more buses than are necessary to transport the students of these subdivisions. We know this because there are two buses going to middle school each in different directions along Dabs Bridge and Cedarcrest respectively. We propose half the number of buses and consolidation of middle and high school which will result in the elimination bus costs for 2 buses due to fewer stops and same final destination.
We the undersigned residents of Thornwood, Pickett's Mill and Pickett's Plantation, respectfully submit this petition to the Paulding County Board of Education.
The following items support our opposition to redistricting to East Paulding Middle School:
1. Of the 479 middle schools in Georgia, East Paulding Middle is ranked 359th and McClure is ranked 82nd. No parent will willingly send their child to a poorly ranked school that has failed to ever maintain AYP under NCLB, like East Paulding. The county will have to guarantee school choice under current NCLB law as well as provide transportation, incurring further county-wide expense.
2. The simplistic districting line along Hwy 92/Dallas Acworth Hwy has always been in place and creates a logical county dividing line.
3. The current distance to East Paulding and McClure is each approx 8 miles from all of these subdivisions. However, land has been purchased and plans finalized for Old Stilesboro, which becomes Acworth Road to go straight through from Dallas Acworth Hwy to Cedarcrest and exiting across from Seven Hills, Subdiv, thus decreasing the distance to McClure by approx 3-4 miles.
4. Sending the students in these subidivisions, which are approx 20 each year, to McClure Middle School and then feeding them next door into North Paulding High School, is more logical than busing these students a further distance to a middle school and then sending them across the county three years later to a high school where they will have fewer friends and disrupting their social comfort zone at this crucial age will mean a more difficult transition to high school. And thus ultimately affecting their academic success as well as putting graduation into jeopardy. We want to give them every opportunity to succeed, not every obstacle to fail.
5. If transportation continues to be at issue, we have a solution: There are currently more buses than are necessary to transport the students of these subdivisions. We know this because there are two buses going to middle school each in different directions along Dabs Bridge and Cedarcrest respectively. We propose half the number of buses and consolidation of middle and high school which will result in the elimination of bus costs for 2 buses due to fewer stops and same final destination.
We the undersigned residents of Thornwood, Pickett's Mill and Pickett's Plantation, respectfully submit this petition to the Paulding County Board of Education.
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