Parents express views on rezoning proposal

A small group of parents voiced objections last week during public hearings on the rezoning of four elementary schools.

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One of the affected schools is Cedar Ridge Elementary, which was the site of the first public hearing held Tuesday. Nearly 390 pupils currently zoned for Cedar Ridge will be moved to either Euchee Creek Elementary or to a new elementary school on Baker Place Road that is to open in August. About 130 pupils currently zoned for Cedar Ridge will attend Euchee Creek next school year, with the remainder going to the new school.

Parents of Cedar Ridge pupils expressed dismay over having to send their children to a school farther away. One parent said that she lives "five seconds" from Cedar Ridge but will have to send her children to a school "10 minutes away."

"Somebody's got to go," Superintendent Charles Nagle said.

Though rezonings are never easy, Nagle said, they are necessary to relieve overcrowding at schools such as Cedar Ridge, which was designed to hold 800 pupils but has an enrollment of 923.

Even more pupils attend Lewiston Elementary, which also was designed to hold 800.

Lewiston was the site of the second public hearing, on Thursday. It will lose more than 430 pupils in the rezoning, mostly to the new school.

Euchee Creek will lose 66 pupils to the Baker Place Road school but will gain 130 from Cedar Ridge.

At Thursday's meeting at Lewiston, parents voiced concerns that the new school might open above capacity.

The new school's proposed zone will cover pupils living south of Columbia Road from Euchee Creek to High Meadows Drive and some living south of Euchee Creek to William Few Parkway. That area includes Ivy Falls, Misty Woods and High Meadows subdivisions.

Also attending the new school might be pupils living north of Wrightsboro Road from Baker Place Road to William Few Parkway and east on William Few Parkway to Chamblin Road at Interstate 20. In addition, the school might take pupils living north of Wrightsboro Road from Euchee Creek to Harlem-Grovetown Road and I-20 at Horizon South Parkway.

The school board is expected to discuss the rezoning at its next meeting, on Nov. 9.