Fulton County residents have their last chance to voice their opinions on school closures and new development plans

EAST POINT, Ga. (Atlanta News First) – Parents of Parklane Elementary School students had their last chance to voice their opinion on the closure of a nearly 71-year-old school Wednesday night.

“It’s just a sense of community that’s a little overwhelming in the best way,” said mother Samantha Shub.

This could be the end of this “community”.

It would be another blow to reeling East Point.

“It seems like East Point is being targeted a little bit,” Shub said. There is another school closure. We lost the hospital. We’re going through a lot of changes.”

The academically outstanding school performs below average in Fulton County metrics. The number of students is 351, almost 100 fewer than the 450 the district wants per school. Parklane’s capacity is 625 students.

The district’s solution: close Parklane and distribute its children to Hapeville Elementary and Hamilton Holmes Elementary.

“By closing Parklane, you’re not just impacting the Parklane children,” said Alicia Kelly, the mother of a Hapeville elementary school student who worries about the impact larger school size could have on learning. “I think it’s an advantage to have smaller class sizes because the children learn more individually.”

And yet those attending the meeting feel like they are not being listened to and that business is being put before the children.

“When you start moving kids around like chess pieces on a board, you have to look at things like that,” Kelly said. “You know, when do they have to get up to get on the bus?”

But the bus keeps rolling. By mid-January, Fulton County Schools could approve new district boundaries and Parklane Elementary, open since 1953, could get the axe.

“Things are moving forward whether we like it or not, and we just have to keep fighting,” Shub said.

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