Clayton News Daily

By Curt Yeomans

cyeomans@news-daily.com

Clayton County Public Schools will hold two public-input meetings in the coming days to gauge community response to the proposed redistricting of boundaries for schools in the panhandle region.

The attendance boundaries are being re-drawn to accommodate the opening of the Eddie J. White K-8 Academy, located at 11808 Panhandle Road, in Lovejoy, in August 2010. River's Edge Middle School and Lovejoy Middle School will be affected by the redistricting plans.

The first meeting will be held on Tuesday, at 6 p.m., at Lovejoy Middle School, which is located at 1588 Lovejoy Road, in Lovejoy. The second meeting will be held on Thursday, also at 6 p.m., at River's Edge Elementary School, which is located at 205 North Bridge Road, in Fayetteville.

The proposed redistricting plans for elementary school pupils calls for anyone living west of Panhandle Road to remain at River's Edge, while students living east of the road will attend the K-8 school.

The plans for middle school students proved to be a bit more controversial when they were unveiled at a Clayton County Board of Education work session on Nov. 16. Those plans create an attendance zone for the K-8 school that would call for students living east of Tara Boulevard to be bused only a few yards past Lovejoy Middle School, to attend the new school.

Clayton County Public Schools Chief Operations Officer Cephus Jackson said the public input will be used to re-draw lines of the proposed plan. The revised plan will be presented to the Clayton County Board of Education by Jackson at the school board's Dec. 14 work session.

Jackson said the school board will vote on redistricting in January.