With the opening of four new schools in Gwinnett County next year, some 14,000 students could find themselves going to new schools next year.

The Gwinnett School District is creating a new cluster to relieve the Berkmar and Central Gwinnett clusters.  It will include a new high school and elementary school on Old Norcross Road in Lawrenceville.

“There is a domino effect, so there will be clusters that are close by that also will have some impact from this redistricting,” says school system spokesperson Sloan Roach.

Students in the Meadowcreek, Norcross, Peachtree Ridge, and Brookwood clusters could also be affected.

The proposed maps will be available starting Oct. 6 at the various schools affected and online at the school district’s website.

Roach says there will be plenty of opportunity to hear from the public including committees from each of the affected schools, boundary input forms that can been filled out and turned in, and at public hearings.

“We understand that nobody really likes redistricting, but it is something we have to do to ensure that our schools remain balanced in terms of their enrollment,” she says.

Once input has been received and any changes made, the school board will vote on the new attendance lines at its meeting Dec. 18.

Meantime, the board has voted on the names of three of the new schools opening next fall.

The elementary school in the new cluster will be called Baggett Elementary named for veteran educator Boyd Quillian Baggett who was the first principal of Central Gwinnett High School.

The new middle school for the Central Gwinnett cluster will be called Jordan Middle School after longtime Lawrenceville Mayor H. Rhodes Jordan.

The new elementary school for the Meadowcreek cluster will be called Graves Elementary after Avery Anderson Graves, a veteran educator who actually lived on Graves Road.

The name for the high school in the new cluster has not yet been decided.

A school naming committee was created to come up with the names based on public input.  Consideration included historical significance, social contribution, names of the community served by the school, roads, landmarks, and geographic locations.