1. The school is “great” because of teachers, parents and students. With new schools opening, the teachers from the existing schools have 1st choice to move to a new school, so they won’t be at the original school any more. Also, those friends of your kids may also be moving.

2. You should be able to be grandfathered in at your current school. You will have to provide transportation, but that is not a problem for a lot of people….. I am not assuming that everyone stays home. However, if you work, there are day care centers that will transport kids in the morning to school from the center and you can pick them up in the afternoon from the same center.

3. In Cobb Cty. we went through redistricting last year. If a student remained at a school (after not choosing the new school) then their sibling could attend the school also as long as the sibling was enrolled. Example: Jr. year student decided to remain at current school. During his Sr. year, his sister was a freshman. She could either attend the new High School after redistricting or attend the previous school with her brother. She choose the old HS.

Change can be good. We were redistricted to a new HS in Cobb County. The new school was great. All the latest technology, etc. That year, the calculus class had 3 students…. better than private school numbers.

So I say, keep your kids at the old school. I will send mine to the new school and enjoy small classroom sizes.

How do we teach our kids to accept change when we aren’t willing to be objectionable about it.

I agree with Patrick. School choice. That and let the parents pay, but get tax credit for the payment, creating a competition among the schools–just like college!

All that said. The best you can do for your child is to listen to them. Keep routines at home as close to the same as possible. Encourage them to see this change as an opportunity to do even better.

However, the middle school was redistricted when my son was in the 7th grade. He wound up going to the new school…and it was the best thing that could’ve happened. The new principal was awesome and had hired a terrific staff. And, the principal at his former middle school, who was very much liked, accepted a new assignment elsewhere. My son grew tremendously in middle school and met good friends, with whom he is still friendly, despite the fact that they are all away at different colleges, and attended different high schools. He never would have met these kids if he had not be redistricted.

There is a brand new high school here, that just opened in August. The students had the option to stay at their old one, but a lot of n’hood kids are attending the new school. Kids are resilient.

What we really need is school choice, and that where you live shouldn’t dictate where you can send you children to school. You should be allowed to send your children wherever you want to enroll them.

Cricket, we had split feeding at the elementary school I went to. I think it ended up being that way at all the elementary schools in Rockdale County, where I finished elementary and went to middle and high school. Out of all the kids in my 5th grade class, I think only a handful ended up going to the same middle school as I, along with a friend who was in another 5th grade class. The other two-thirds went to one or both of the other two middle schools. I didn’t see some of them again until when we all entered high school.