By Mary Kay Murphy
PEACHREE CORNERS, Ga. | For the last 28 years as District III School Board member, I served on the Gwinnett Board of Education. I represented schools in Norcross, Peachtree Corners, Berkeley Lake, Duluth, Peachtree Ridge, North Gwinnett, Sugar Hill, Suwanee, and Collins Hill.
Murphy
During that time, the major change I witnessed was a nearly 100,000-student increase in Gwinnett schools, where students now come from 180 countries with 108 languages spoken.
The school system met this rapid growth by developing world class programs related to the changing needs of its students and families. Many of the programs were good for the school system such as the Academic Knowledge and Skills curriculum that replaced the Outcomes Based Education curriculum.
Another change for the good was the introduction in 1997 of E-SPLOST, the Education Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax, a one penny sales tax that helped the Gwinnett system build 76 new schools between 1997 and 2024.
Not all changes in that time were for the good. Negative changes were imposed on the school system from conditions over which it had no control. These included $100 million in austerity cuts imposed by the State of Georgia in 2008 and continued over ten years.
Another negative impact came when the COVID-19 pandemic closed Gwinnett schools in 2020 and 2021. The closure resulted in learning loss for many Gwinnett students who required schedules, routine, and structure to be successful in school. Many are still working to overcome that loss years after the event stopped impacting the public schools..
As growth increased in its student body, the school system continued to offer a range of programs with a global world class focus. These included International Baccalaureate, Dual Language immersion programs in French, Spanish, Mandarin Chinese, and Korean; and Multi-Language Learner programs.
Growth in student enrollment allowed eighth graders and their families to choose between attending Norcross High School with its IB and 3DE programs or Paul Duke STEM High School with its STEM program. Other school choice programs are offered between Meadowcreek High School and McClure Health Science High School.
Also, the system’s New Life Academy of Excellence charter school provides language immersion in Mandarin Chinese as do Peachtree Ridge High School and the Gwinnett School of Math, Science, and Technology.
Also, among the high school options is the Seckinger High School for Artificial intelligence, along with its feeder elementary and middle schools focused also on Artificial Intelligence.
In partnership with the Georgia Department of Education, Gwinnett offers programs in 17 career pathways. These relate to Career, Technical, and Agricultural Education and provide ways for students to become college and career ready as well as to achieve certification in many of the 17 pathways.
Among its programs, GCPS offers ways for students to restore credit by offering Positive Behavior Interventions and at each of its 142 schools and at the GIVE West and GIVE East alternative schools.
Without the support of our community, the Gwinnett school system could not have adapted to these changes for the good and the bad to serve the needs of its nearly 200,000 students.
Serving on the Gwinnett Board of Education has been an honor, and I am thankful to our community for allowing me to be their School Board member for nearly three decades.
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