EVANS, GA (WFXG) -
If your child attends Grovetown Middle School, they may be attending Evans Middle next year.
If they attend Greenbrier, Columbia Middle might be their new home in 2013 after the Columbia County School Board approved a rezoning plan at Tuesday's meeting.
"It seems a logical one," says CCBOE Chairman Regina Buccafusco of the change. "There's been no growth at Evans Middle School, whereas there's more growth in the other areas."
But not everyone agrees.
The motion only passed 3-2. Board member Mike Sleeper is one of those voting against it.
"We're taking a bunch of Columbia County residents and taking them from a school, Grovetown Middle, that is underpopulated and sending them now to a school that's overpopulated- Evans Middle," says Sleeper.
Sleeper says he also voted after hearing from several parents who voiced their concerns, including Nancy Gay, who presented the board with a petition signed by 36 of her neighbors against the re-zoning.
"If anything, I think it will create another issue two years down the road at Evans Middle School, and they'll be faced with a bigger issue," she says.
The move will more evenly distribute students across the four schools, and board members say it will ease overcrowding concerns.
Buccafusco says it will also ease transportation concerns.
"Neighborhoods that we rezoned, we've rezoned them into schools that are closer to them geographically where they are," she says.
But parents like Nancy are disappointed, though she says she and her daughter, who is now zoned to change schools, will just have to live with the decision.
"She's going to be upset," she laughs. "But she's going to be just fine, and she'll be ok."
The changes go into effect for the 2013-2014 school year.
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