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Parents urge board to revisit enrollment counts and recent school‑closure plans after new data; board says it will follow up
Summary
Community members asked the board to reconsider recent facility and closure decisions after updated enrollment data showed higher FTE at some schools; speakers warned regional‑unit students are being undercounted and that funding and rezoning decisions should be revisited in light of corrected numbers.
During public comment, Dion said official FTE counts and the facilities master plan did not reflect students in regional units at Howard Middle School and estimated tens of students were omitted from the figures used for funding and facility planning.
"These students are Howard Middle School students ... when we're talking about enrollment, these kiddos do not exist on things," Dion said, arguing that those students appear on principals' dashboards and in Infinite Campus but not in the reporting used to make funding and facilities decisions. He estimated that about 40 students could account for roughly $1,100,000 that was held harmless to other schools.
Wakisha, a Go‑team member and PTA president, urged the board to reconsider recent votes on school closures and rezonings that would affect West and Southwest Atlanta clusters and to be transparent about where COVID‑era and subsequent funding was spent. Board members acknowledged the difficulty of closure votes and said they would continue community engagement and review updated data in the DataDigg session planned for next week.
Board members asked staff to follow up with Dr. Johnson and to provide clearer enrollment definitions and projections so the community can understand how FTE counts and funding decisions were derived.
