Parents can request school transfer next week

Parents unhappy that their children were rezoned for a new school that opens in August now have a chance to reverse that circumstance.

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Applications for permissive transfers become available on Monday, with numerous slots available at Cedar Ridge and Lewiston elementary schools.

Those schools, along with Euchee Creek Elementary, were most affected by the rezoning for a new elementary school under construction on Baker Place Road.

Signed into law last year, Georgia House Bill 251 allows parents to request that their children be transferred to any school within the same system with available capacity.

Thanks in large part to the rezoning, Lewiston has 89 open slots, and Cedar Ridge has 19.

Despite the opportunity afforded parents by permissive transfers, Assistant Superintendent Robert Jarrell said that most won't take advantage of them because a stipulation in the law requires that parents provide transportation to the preferred school.

However, if applications overwhelm the available slots, Jarrell said, principals at those schools will conduct a drawing to fill the seats.

Other schools with available capacity are Blue Ridge Elementary with four, Riverside Elementary with 43, Westmont Elementary with six and Harlem High with 221.

Applications for permissive transfer forms are available on the school system's Web site, www.ccboe.net, at the central office on Hereford Farm Road in Evans, or at any school with transfer spaces available.

The deadline to submit a transfer form is Jan. 28.

For information, call Kendra Shelton at (706) 541-0650.