GAINESVILLE – The last scheduled Gainesville City Schools Board of Education meeting for the 2016 calendar year saw a pair of recommendations adopted Monday evening for the 2017-2018 school year which begins in August.
The first measure approved came from the Zoning Recommendation Committee, a diverse group charged with determining the geographical borders for students attending Mundy Mill Academy, the new elementary school being constructed on Millside Parkway.
The group – made up of the Governance Council chairs from the existing elementary schools, representatives from the Hall County GIS (Geographic Information System mapping), members of the Gainesville City Planning Department, representatives from the University of North Georgia, and school administrators - had the difficult task of balancing school populations while disrupting as few families as possible.
Sarah Bell, Chief Academic Officer for the school system, summed up the Committee’s recommendation. “The easiest way to communicate with our families was to create a clear geographical line…that new line being south of Browns Bridge and Memorial Park (Roads),” Bell told the board.
Relocating students away from the schools they now attend was one of the challenges the Zoning Recommendation Committee faced, as well as trying to balance the enrollment in the other schools and doing so as Enota MI Academy is temporarily sharing a campus with Centennial Arts Academy.
“We don’t know exactly how Mundy Mill is going to build out (family demographic-wise) right now and we were tasked with trying to alleviate some over-crowding at both GEA (Gainesville Exploration Academy) and Centennial, which we were able to do,” Bell said.
“I think it’s best to base your judgement on the numbers that you have,” board member Sammy Smith told Bell. “I don’t know that anyone has a crystal ball. We know that annexation is coming this way…and apartment complexes have been approved (for construction).”
“So the committee felt that the best that we could do right now was to establish a zone, get Mundy Mill Academy started…and then revisit the numbers for 2018-2019,” Bell said.
In the second recommendation approved by the board a slightly different calendar for the 2017-2018 school year was adopted.
Three possible calendars were presented for consideration according to Superintendent Dr. Wanda Creel.
“(These) were presented to our administrators, who gave feedback…and then we sent a survey back out…to our certified advisory committee, our classified advisory committee, each school Governance Council member,” Creel explained.
“Forty-six percent…selected option one,” Creel said.
“Option one has…students beginning on Wednesday, August 2…a fall-break a little longer than what we had this last year…and what is a little different about this calendar…a longer break in February, normally one day, but you’ll see that (in 2018) the students are out for a week,” Creel said.
She said feedback favored having a longer break in February (19th-23rd) and a full week for spring-break in April (2nd-6th).
“It does have us concluding the year about a week later because we added that week in February,” Creel said. “The last day for students would be on May the 25th.”
And speaking of Superintendent Creel, or rather the search for her replacement when she steps down at the end of June, board vice-chairman Brett Mercer said meetings with a search consultant had begun.
“We have met with the search firm and we are formulating that plan and working on a timeline, but do not have that timeline ready to publish,” Mercer said. “That’s as far as we’ve gotten, so far.”
