Brian Vanderhoff's North Fulton Real Estate Blog

CUMMING, Ga. — From her home, Meg Sparwath can hear the West Forsyth High School marching band — Pride of the West — rehearsing.

Sparwath lives in the Ashebrooke neighborhood, about 1.5 miles from the school, but her daughter will not be attending West.

"They are trying to move us to Forsyth Central High School, which is over four times as far for us," Sparwath said.

Sparwath is one of several Ashbrooke residents upset at the newly redistricted student attendance lines, which places the Bethelview corridor students at a new high school.

Redistricting for the 2012-13 school year also adjusts feeder patterns and moves students from North Forsyth HS and West Forsyth HS to Central HS, which is under capacity by about 750 students.

"Because there's no funding for any new high schools or any additions in the foreseeable future, we have to relieve West and also populate Central," Jennifer Caracciolo, Forsyth County Schools spokeswoman, said. "West is not over capacity, but looking into the future, they will be next year."

North Forsyth High School is currently over capacity.

Forsyth County School officials began the redistricting process in order to populate the new Kelly Mill Elementary School.

The school district staff has received feedback on the first and second drafts of the 2012-13 attendance lines from local school councils at impacted schools that also include Chattahoochee Elementary School, Coal Mountain ES, Cumming ES, Sawnee ES, Vickery Creek ES, Whitlow ES, Liberty Middle School, Little Mill MS, North Forsyth MS, Otwell MS and Vickery Creek MS.

Feedback on the proposed redistricting of students is being collected until Oct. 31 through the Forsyth County Schools website www.forsyth.k12.ga.us.

Sparwath said the proposals she has seen do not include changes to the Bethelview corridor that residents have requested. She plans to continue to oppose the drafts to the local school councils and the Forsyth County Board of Education. Sparwath said among her concerns is longer travel times if there's after-school participation.

"Basically, we think they are not supporting us and they are just worrying about numbers," Sparwath said.

Caracciolo said the board of education wants to let local school councils collect the information prior to finalizing the maps in November.

At 7 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 25, a public hearing will take place Forsyth Central High School, 520 Tribble Gap Road in Cumming. Several parents will voice their concerns with the redistricting, and school board members will be there to hear the feedback from the community. They will discuss all of the concerns they collect at their Nov. 3 meeting.

"Now, it's opened up for everyone to give feedback," Caracciolo said.

Labels: Forsyth, Forsyth County, Forsyth County Schools, Forysth, Forysth County, school district, School Redistricting, schools

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Labels: Forsyth, Forsyth County, Forsyth County Schools, school calendar

Forsyth County Schools welcomed 302 new teachers during the system's annual New Educator Orientation (NEO) on July 30 at West Forsyth High School. NEO is the new educators' first introduction to the Forsyth County school system and provides them an overview of the system as well as the chance to meet and mingle with more than 100 area vendors.

Of the new educators, 45 come from different states including Florida, Tennessee, New York and Colorado. Three of the 302 hail from Chile, New Zealand and Columbia and 139 come from other Georgia school systems.

The new teachers were welcomed to the system by Board of Education Chairwoman Nancy Roche, Associate Superintendent Mary Harwell and James McCoy, president of the Cumming-Forsyth County Chamber of Commerce. Roche provided a few words of inspiration, encouraging the new educators to provide "torches of hope, imagination, efficacy, respect and connectedness" to their students.

"As we move into the unknown and unimagined territory of the new millennium, we will all need torches, in the figurative sense, to help us find our way and to light the way for our students as well," said Roche.

Harwell gave the new teachers an overview of the beliefs and goals of FCS and the Board of Education.

"As new members of our Forsyth County Schools family, you play a crucial role in our work," Harwell told the new educators. "In Forsyth we are a team - the Board, students, staff, parents and community.
We are committed to excellence and becoming the most effective school district in the nation."

McCoy welcomed the educators to Forsyth County. The new educators also received words of inspiration from this year's FCS Teacher of the Year, Suzy Besson-Martilotta, first grade teacher at Chattahoochee Elementary.

Additionally, the new educators participated in a variety of orientation sessions based on their level of teaching experience and grade levels taught. These sessions provided the new teachers an overview of FCS policies and procedures, as well as other useful information.

Throughout the day, the new teachers also had several opportunities to visit the NEO Avenue of Vendors, featuring more than 100 Forsyth County area business, agencies and organizations. The Avenue of Vendors is provided each year to give the new teachers an opportunity to learn more about their new community and the services available to them.

This year's NEO Gold Sponsors were Evan Profeta State Farm Insurance, Georgia Federal Credit Union, John Heath RE/MAX 400 North and Northside Hospital-Forsyth. These vendors were presented with special recognition in honor of their continuing dedication to FCS.

Labels: Forsyth County Schools, Georgia, new educator orientation, new teachers

Forsyth County Schools ranked near the top in numerous categories in the 2008 Report Card for Parents, a searchable database of statistics on Georgia's public schools. The latest list is now available and posted on the Web site of the Georgia Public Policy Foundation at www.gppf.org.

Superintendent Buster Evans said the Foundation has done an "excellent job" tracking the successes of Georgia schools.

"We're thrilled to have our schools rank so high on this year's report card for parents," he said. "We're particularly pleased with South Forsyth High School's rank of seventh out of 380 high schools. We encourage parents to take a look at this wonderful resource, not only to see the successes of our schools, but also the areas where we can improve."

The Report Card, which has been produced and published by the Georgia Public Policy Foundation since 1996, provides valuable information for discussions that will help parents make informed decisions about the quality of public education in Georgia.

"With the increase in charter schools, parents have more schools than ever from which to choose and it becomes more important than ever for parents to have quality information about academic performance," said the Foundation's executive vice president, Kelly McCutchen.

"For the vast majority of parents, assessing the quality of a school can be a daunting task with unfamiliar terms and voluminous data. This report card offers parents the simple facts to aid in the assessment of their children's education, whether they're in a district or relocating."

The 2008 Report Card for Parents numerically ranks 1,190 public elementary schools, 486 middle schools and 380 high schools in the state by an achievement score based on the percentage of students meeting and exceeding standards. Because there is a strong link between poverty and test scores (the higher the poverty rate, the lower the test scores), the report includes two other criteria for information purposes only. The first is the poverty rate - the percentage of students in each school who qualify for the federal free/reduced-price lunch program. The second is a poverty index that measures how well a school is performing relative to its poverty rate.

"The Foundation's efforts to ensure that the data can be transparent and easily understood will help raise the involvement level of those who want to influence Georgia's most important conversation - the one about the future of education," said Rogers Wade, president of the Georgia Public Policy Foundation.

The data were provided by the Governor's Office of Student Achievement and the Georgia Department of Education.

The Georgia Public Policy Foundation, a think tank formed in 1991, is a nonpartisan, member-supported research and education foundation that promotes free markets, limited government and individual responsibility.

Labels: 2008 report card for parents, Forsyth County Schools, georgia public poilcy foundation

FORSYTH COUNTY -- A sales tax approved by nearly 70 percent of local voters Feb. 5 is now in question following a recent court decision preventing the county from collecting the funds.

Superior Court Judge Hugh W. Stone's April 30 decision could affect numerous county projects and the collection of the sales tax scheduled to begin July 1. Stone ruled the county should have listed every project on the ballot.

Cumming had identified $50 million in projects it wanted to accomplish through the SPLOST. But the county had allotted the city 4.29 percent of the sales tax revenue (about $11.8 million). That figure is the per capita share of the Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST) based on the 2000 Census.

Forsyth County Commission Chairman Charles Laughinghouse said he believed the ruling was an "error."

"I believe the judges ruling is in error," he said, "but the Board of Commissioners will abide by the decision until the Board can determine an appropriate course of action."

The county has not appealed the April 30 decision. If such a decision is made, County Attorney Ken Jarrard said it could happen as early as this week.

The ruling was a victory for those in the city of Cumming campaigning against the passing of the SPLOST. Mayor Ford Gravitt said it's also a victory for both the people of Cumming and Forsyth County.

"We're very happy with it and hopefully we can get back with the county and start negotiating real soon," he said.

Through the negotiation process, Gravitt said they are hoping to identify the SPLOST projects.

"We would like to negotiate and get back working on it very quickly," said Gravitt.

But he said that depends on the commissioners.

If the county appeals, Gravitt said the city is ready to go to court to see if the judge's decision is upheld.

Commissioner David Richard said the ruling has prevented the collection of sales tax in the county for "at least a quarter." The sales tax would have started collecting July 1.

But Richard said the county prevailed with the ruling on several other issues such as legality of the population split.

"The bottom line is that there will be a period of time in this county that we will not be able to collect," Richard said. "Thank you, city council and mayor."

Richard said listing the city's requested projects when $11.8 million would not cover the $50 million bill would have been "confusing" to voters.

"There is no legal basis for listing all the projects," he said.

If the county decides to appeal, Richard said the county could "arguably overturn a bad law" affecting county's across the state.

"No longer will cities hold hostage the counties where they are," he said.

The seven-member Forsyth County Citizens Transportation Projects Selection Committee completed Jan. 2 a list of project priorities SPLOST. Jim Boff, chairman of the committee, said the April 30 ruling was regrettable.

"I remain proud of the good sense of the vast majority of voters," he said, "and proud of all of the good work from the seven member SPLOST VI committee. It pains me to see the will of the people delayed by outside forces especially since this critically affects public safety."

Charles I. Smith, who also served on the committee, said he was disappointed.

"It is regrettable that the citizens of our county might be deprived of much needed road improvements," he said, "and other SPLOST VI projects that may be significantly delayed due to this litigation."

Some citizens asked the local government to move forward.

"I urge this board to move forward," said District 4 resident Bebe Miles, "and go beyond the pettiness and the Internet blogs to move forward in the spirit of teamwork to benefit the county as a whole."

But Miles said she was saddened by the situation.

"I'm disappointed," she said. "This is a sad moment in Forsyth County history."

Gravitt rejected a possible 10 percent city portion in October, 2007. The commissioners voted 3-2 that same month to offer the city a five-year SPLOST.

Cumming filed suit against the county in November and the case was dismissed Dec. 17, 2007.

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The SPLOST debate

• Oct. 16, 2007 Commissioners meet to discuss SPLOST proceeds. No intergovernmental agreement between city and county was reached. Mayor H. Ford Gravitt said the city would not accept a discussed split of 10 percent to Cumming and 90 percent to Forsyth County.

• Oct. 16, 2007 At a city council meeting, Gravitt said the 90-10 split was unacceptable considering the SPLOST V split was 85-15 and the city planned $50 million in projects from future SPLOST proceeds.

• Oct. 18, 2007 Commissioners continue SPLOST discussion. A 10 percent offer to the city failed with a 3-2 vote (at least a 4-1 vote was needed to support the purposed agreement). Commissioner Jim Harrell made the motion to offer an 8 percent portion to the city, which was seconded by Commission Chairman Charles Laughinghouse. The motion failed to pass.

Commissioners then decided 3-2 to accept a five-year SPLOST with the city's portion based on the 2000 Census, or 4.29 percent.

• Oct. 23, 2007 Commissioner Brian Tam announces he will ask for a reconsideration of the SPLOST vote and seek a 91-9 split with the city.

• Oct. 30, 2007 Commissioners vote 3-2 against revisiting the SPLOST decision.

• Nov. 6, 2007 Cumming files suit against Forsyth County

• Dec. 17, 2007 Cumming's case is dismissed in court.

• Feb. 5, 2008 More than 69 percent of Forsyth County voters approve SPLOST.

• April 30, 2008 Judge Stone prevents county from collecting SPLOST dollars.

Labels: Forsyth County Schools, SPLOST

Believe it or not, it's already time to start thinking about next school year. If you are the parent or guardian of a child who will be 5 years old before September 1, 2008 and will begin kindergarten in school year 2008/09, take note of this very important event. The Forsyth County Schools' Kindergarten Round-Up Registration is coming to all elementary schools on Tuesday, April 1 and Wednesday, April 2. On April 1 from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. and April 2 from 1 p.m. to 7 p.m, elementary schools will register new kindergartners and answer questions. Students are not required to be present at registration. Orientations and tours will not be given during Kindergarten Round-Up, but will be given at later dates according to each school.

For those unable to attend Kindergarten Round-Up, kindergarten registration will begin at the Hill Center on April 28, 2008.

To obtain a complete list of documents needed to register, visit www.forsyth.k12.ga.us and go to "Select a Link," then choose "Student Registration." To find out which school your child will attend, select "School Attendance Zones." For further information, call 678-947-0863.

Labels: Forsyth, Forsyth County Schools, Kindergarten

Forsyth County Schools (FCS) are currently redrawing school attendance zones for the 2009-10 school year. This redistricting is necessary because of overcrowding at current schools and the opening of five new schools in August, 2009. These schools include Brookwood ES, Haw Creek ES, Whitlow ES, Lakeside MS and Lambert HS.
For a timeline, maps, FAQs and video, visit www.forsyth.k12.ga.us, go to "select a link" and select "redistricting."
The final lines will be approved in May 2008. Prior to approval, there will be three drafts of maps posted online and in your school on 2/20, 3/5 and 4/3.
Suggestions on the first two drafts can be submitted online or by calling 770-887-2461, extension 205025.
Local School Councils (LSCs) will also have an opportunity to provide suggestions for improving the drafts. Suggestions on the third draft can be shared at two public forums, 4/22/08 at 7 p.m. at Forsyth Central HS and 4/29/08 at 7 p.m. at South Forsyth HS.


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Why are school attendance lines being redrawn?
School attendance lines are being redrawn to accommodate the opening of the following schools in 2009:
• Brookwood ES, a two-story school located on Vaughn Drive
• Whitlow ES, a one story school located on Castleberry Road
• Haw Creek ES and Lakeside MS, two two-story schools located adjacent to each other on Echols Road.
• Lambert HS, which is located next to Sharon Elementary on Nichols Road. Lambert is a two story design similar to West Forsyth High. Lambert will open without a senior class.
These schools are funded by our voters who approved the 2006 Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST) and bond referendum. New lines are also being redrawn to accommodate the overcrowding at our existing schools.

Why is FCS opening new schools?
FCS continues to be one of the fastest growing school districts in Georgia and the nation. We have grown from a medium size system to a large system by adding more than 20,000 students since 1995, a more than 200 percent increase. This is the equivalent of adding approximately 19 new middle schools. Currently, FCS is home to close to 31,000 students and is projected to grow to over 50,000 students in 5 years.

How are the new schools being funded?
The new schools are being funded with monies from the state and from the voter approved the 2006 Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST III) and bond referendum. This SPLOST/bond is separate from the county (commissioners) and city's SPLOST.

How can I provide feedback?
• Web form -- www.forsyth.k12.ga.us, go to "select a link" and choose redistricting
• Voice mail - 770-887-2461 x205025
• 2 Community Forums for public input
Cluster meetings will also be held for school LSC members.
More information is available at www.forsyth.k12.ga.us.

Labels: Forsyth, Forsyth County Schools, Redistricting, School