The Houston school board has approved a new version of its alternate zoning plan. This one leaves the Quail Run neighborbood in the Northside High School District.
The seven-member board had been scheduled to choose between two proposals. The two plans can be viewed at the Houston County School Board's website. But board members today discussed a third plan, actually a revision of that second plan unveiled earlier this month.
That plan puts Quail Run back in the Northside High School District. It also puts the area west of Moody Road, east of Houston Lake and south of Feagin Mill Road into the Veterans High School district. But the area east of Moody Road and north of Highway 96 will remain in Warner Robins High School's zone.
The revision plan passed by a 6-1 vote.
Board member Griff Clements said the board was moving too fast on the new plan, but other members said they wanted to settle the divisive issue today. The school board unveiled one plan last year, then went back to the drawing board after some parents criticized the zoning.
Then a second parents' group asked them to pick the original plan, saying it was fairer and provided a better racial mix of the district's schools.
School board members said they'd received as many as 1,000 emails on the controversial topic. Some said people were still lobbying them in the parking lot outside the meeting. Members said they took seriously the business of deciding where the district's 25,000 children would attend school. They said they hoped the community would heal after the vote and get back to the business of maintaining an outstanding school system. The board must draw new school-district lines due to this year's scheduled opening of the new Veterans High School.
