Virginia-Highland Residents Plan Fight Against School Redistricting

Virginia-Highland residents met Monday night to discuss Atlanta Public Schools redistricting options and brainstorm talking points for a letter from the neighborhood association.

Members of the Virginia-Highland Civic Association are calling for a more transparent process that allows groups more time for research and thoughtful discussion.

A formal letter from the neighborhood association that outlines the group’s position will be sent out later this week.

“I think we all recognize that this has the capacity to be the most divisive and difficult issue in this neighborhood since the road was proposed in the ‘70s,” Virginia-Highland Civic Association president Jack White said during the neighborhood association meeting Monday night at on N. Highland Avenue. “I don’t believe this is a data struggle. I believe this is a political struggle at heart.”

In the mid 1960s, Georgia Department of Transportation proposed construction of a highway through the Virginia-Highland neighborhood to connect Freedom Parkway and Georgia 400. The proposal was defeated in the early 1970s due to the efforts of the Virginia-Highland Civic Association and the group's fight against the proposal.

White said he spoke to other neighborhood association presidents over the last few weeks and he believes all the neighborhoods in the district are “struggling with similar problems from possibly slightly different perspectives.”

, ,  Poncey-Highland and Lake Claire neighborhood groups — among others —have all released statements outlining their position on the proposed redistricting plan.

Overcrowding

Capacity issues at elementary, middle and high schools that serve Virginia-Highland, Poncey-Highland, Morningside and Midtown are the root of the problem in these neighborhoods.

and are over capacity and projections indicate enrollment will continue to climb over the next five to seven years.

, a feeder school for Grady High School, is over capacity and projections indicate it will continue to rise through 2021. Grady High is also overcrowded and projections show enrollment continues to increases as more students move through the school system.

Redistricting Options

The options on the table include and instead sending Morningside kids to a proposed new Mid-town Middle School and North Atlanta High School.

Virginia-Highland residents said Monday night that Morningside and Virginia-Highland have close ties and splitting the neighborhoods would be devastating.

Springdale Park will remain in the Grady cluster, but two options would create a primary center model with Hope-Hill Elementary in Old Fourth Ward.

and avoid sending kids to Hope-Hill.

Board member Cecily Harsch-Kinnane told parents last week that construction at Springdale Park is a possibility because some money will be given to the school for new construction, and there is space to add a classroom building on the Briarcliff Road lot.

The overcrowding at Inman and Grady can only be solved by sending fewer students into the schools because there is little or no room to expand on the campuses.

Parents and residents voiced concerns Monday night about how redistricting would effect property taxes, quality of education, parent involvement in schools and neighborhood and community cohesion.

But the message from the group as a whole seemed to focus on “local determination” and the push for a transparent process that allows time for “thoughtful debate.”

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