Dear Friends,

Our neighborhood, The Ridge, has been part of the Barnwell community for 22 years. Our children have been with yours since the first day of kindergarten to the final 5th grade graduation. We’ve served with you on the PTA, helped chair events like Barnival, and celebrated the school’s many accomplishments.

We need your help and we need it quickly. As you may have heard, Fulton County Schools is redistricting several neighborhoods out of Barnwell Elementary. We believe this will be detrimental to Barnwell in many ways:

1. The proposed plan from Fulton County has enrollment decreasing at Barnwell. Over the next 4 years, projected enrollment will decrease from 767 to 661 students. That is a loss of up to 3 classrooms(not smaller classes). What does this mean? Less money for Barnwell from Fulton County schools and from parent donations.
2. There is a significant amount of parent involvement from the impacted neighborhoods. We have a history of serving in key PTA leadership positions, helping to chair school events, volunteering in the classroom as room parents, and connecting the school to businesses in the community. The loss of these families that have significantly invested in Barnwell will leave a void in the school that may take years to fill.
3. The proposed plan disrupts several neighborhood groupings and undermines the cohesion of our Johns Creek Community. For example, Queensbury will still attend Barnwell but the other neighborhoods on Brumbelow will be redistricted. This separates kids who live next to each other and will ultimately attend middle school together.

What can you do? Please sign this electronic petition. Please submit online comments opposing Fulton County’s draft plan. Even if you are not near the impacted area, this is an opportunity to send a message to Fulton County that we are a community and we are going to protect the things that make Barnwell such a great school. Online comments must be submitted by 11:59pm on Monday, December 7th.

Thank you for your support!