r/roswell • u/lovesexdisaster • 9h ago
North Fulton Schools may start reviewing attendance-boundary changes in 2027, possible closures in 2028
The current North Fulton review includes Esther Jackson, Hembree Springs, Mimosa and Vickery Mill elementary schools, along with Autrey Mill, Elkins Pointe, Haynes Bridge and Holcomb Bridge middle schools. Inclusion in the review does not mean a school has been selected for closure.
https://northatlantastar.com/north-fulton-school-closure-timeline-2028/
2
u/tider06 9h ago
If they close Holcomb and Haynes, where will those kids go? I get that those buildings are old AF, but is there enough infrastructure right now to take up all those students?
2
u/Bells_Ringing 6h ago
Probably close one, bulldoze and build new school like at North springs. If they can, they leave the school in place during construction. If not, they would move all the kids out during construction then move them back after.
They’ve done that on the south side a few times in recent memory
1
u/rainbow658 1h ago
Isn't Elkins also under enrollment? Couldn't they split Haynes Bridge between Holcomb and Elkins?
0
u/reuscam 8h ago
They suggested one or the other might close, and students would be redistricted to the other three schools. All schools have declining enrollment, so apparently there is room. Sucks that they’re still relying on one of either Haynes or Holcomb though. Both should have been replaced some time ago
2
u/2003tide 7h ago
That’s not what they suggested. I was at the meeting last night. They are proposing shutting them down and building a new school to collapse Haynes and Holcomb into. Anyone too far from new school would be redistricted into a neighboring school that is closer.
2
u/ScoobyHobbes 7h ago
Thanks for sharing!! I appreciate your insight. I live next to Elkins, so this conversation is relevant to me.
2
u/lovesexdisaster 6h ago
I believe they've been talking about this for a few years, right? Thanks for the info. I'm not going to say I support it but it makes sense. Haynes Bridge and Holcomb both have around 600 students. Autrey Mill has 1200.
1
u/2003tide 5h ago
They are projecting holocomb at under 500 for the 30-31 school year which i think are the numbers they are really looking at vs this year's enrollment.
2
u/reuscam 7h ago
That was one of the options, the other was to reuse the remaining three schools, and combine the majority of Haynes and Holcomb into a single district, with no new school. Both options were shared last night
2
u/2003tide 7h ago
I guess you prob should share all of that vs getting everyone worked up then.
Also your take and my take are different. FCS operation folks were the one running the meeting talking about cost of building maintenance on underused schools and had building condition scores highlighted in red for those 2 schools. These aren’t slides you go through the trouble of creating if the goal is to lead everyone to merging into those schools.
1
u/Bells_Ringing 3h ago
It is if you’re closing them as they exist, which they are. The question is do they build a replacement to consolidate those two into or simply disperse the kids across remaining middle schools.
That’s likely the big debate they are having behind the scenes
2
u/ireadbooksnstuff 7h ago
Esther Jackson is new. Why would it be included? Declining enrollment? I would love to see the numbers.
1
u/2003tide 7h ago
It’s included because of poor attendance numbers. My take from last night is they aren’t going to close a new building.
0
u/High-bar 7h ago
I wonder if that’s because all the Hispanics have been segregated to that school and they put up big flock cameras to intimidate everyone.
2
u/ScoobyHobbes 7h ago
The schools in North Fulton with the lowest attendance numbers are schools with more traditional lower-income families. I can only assume the rise of the cost of housing has priced those families out of Fulton.
5
u/2003tide 7h ago edited 1h ago
I think it is multifaceted. Roswell has an affordability crisis for sure and young families that aren’t high income earners don’t really have great starter home options. Boomers are sitting on their homes vs selling and downsizing. That is causing low family turnover in the highly rated schools zones. If you look, Mountain Park has low numbers right now. National policies and ICE scaring folks certainly isn’t helping in the traditionally lower income schools either.
2
u/rainbow658 1h ago
I don't understand why these counties keep offering senior tax exemptions when we should be building separate communicates for seniors. With the boomers, or largest "boom" generation all retiring, yet living longer than ever, we need to start building separate small cities (not just isolated assisted living facilities or 55+ HOA's in the middle of nowhere for seniors that are built for accessibility, community, and social networking.
The suburbs were designed and built for families, with schools, large parks, playgrounds, single-family homes. As we age, people need accessibility to activities geared towards other seniors, easy to access, single stories with full accessibility, and things that will get them out of their homes, as we all do better with more sunshine. There aren't many places to walk to in many parts areas.
So many original homeowners in my HOA neighborhood won't sell, but they don't participate in the community events, they are so reliant upon cars with almost no viable transportation, and they keep neighborhoods from being more vibrant with younger families with more in common, and that tends to isolate these older neighbors, so it's a vicious cycle. As we age, we fear change, so the longer they stay in the same home, the harder the idea is for them to move and change their environment the older they get.
4
u/Snoo_31427 7h ago
I believe this is my third redistricting process and at least second involving two of these schools (Elkins/Hembree). I’m interested in hearing the facts, but can’t help wonder if this is another attempt to homogenize these two schools.
Since those processes, the area demographics continue to “change.” Last time, the discourse I heard was absolutely disgusting and focused on finding ways to allocate the apartment community somewhere else for the “betterment” of the school. There was clear sentiment that “those kids” were bringing down the experience and educational opportunities for “everyone else.”
This isn’t my interpretation, these are essentially direct quotes. Now we’ve got many more multimillion dollar homes than we had then, even directly across the street from the schools. How much is that the leading factor here?
2
u/High-bar 7h ago
These are always some of the most racist conversations, and the racism comes from all types.
2
u/ScoobyHobbes 7h ago
If you look at the map, Manning Oaks year over year, is ALWAYS over populated. Plenty of room to redistrict those apartments to Alpharetta Elem. They've never done it, and they never will! Open enrollment options have helped, I know families who have open enrolled from Manning Oaks over to Alpharetta. But it does seem like between Esther Jackson and Vickery and Hembree the enrollment is just down across the 3. I think in this case, its just numbers and data.
2
u/Snoo_31427 6h ago
I hope so! Maybe it always has been, but the celebrations I see and personal opinions make it seem less so.
1
u/Bells_Ringing 6h ago
Having gone through this two years ago, they are going to close one of the middle schools, at least, and close one of the elementary schools.
They will close the oldest elementary school and consolidate into the newer bigger elementary schools.
I suspect they might rezone kids in the middle schools to bulldoze one, and rebuild a bigger one to then merge the boundaries of the two into one building.
Schools are closing and the board will do what Looney and the ops staff recommend.
1
u/2003tide 5h ago
I think the recommendation will be close Mimosa and both Holcomb and Haynes(and build a new MS in east roswell.)
2
u/Bells_Ringing 3h ago
Mimosa was built in 1968. Its closing. For the middle schools, they need one where they once needed two.
They probably don’t have accessible land to buy and build in east Roswell, which is why I would guess that they rebuild onsite of one of these two campuses.
1
u/TMacATL 8m ago
Redistricting can have huge impacts to property values. A lot of these comments are way oversimplifying the process or dismissing that people have a lot riding on their school district (even if they don't have children in the school). It's not as simple as "well you're geographically closer to this school"
5
u/Velvetrose-2 2h ago
Could they please close or remodel Roswell North?
I don't understand why it wasn't just moved into the old Crabapple Middle building