School chief highlights milestones in address

Gwinnett County Public Schools have reached another enrollment milestone, surpassing 180,000 students. As of Sept. 3, the district has a count of 180,324 — 120 more than it projected.

Although Superintendent J. Alvin Wilbanks joked the person who missed the mark is now out of a job, he was serious when he explained the major impact those numbers have. Coming within 0.07% of the actual enrollment isn’t easy to do. The science of getting it right has major implications. Schools have to know how many teachers to hire and what other resources are needed well before the bell rings on the first day of class.

Wilbanks put those kind of statistics into context as he highlighted the school system’s achievements at the annual State of the Schools address Wednesday hosted by the Gwinnett Chamber at The Forum at the Infinite Energy Center.

Although Gwinnett is the 13th largest school district in the country, factor in that Hawaii has a statewide system, as does Puerto Rico, and perspective shows how daunting it is to have so many students under one jurisdiction.

“I don’t know if being the biggest is much of an advantage. It just means there’s more to do and more people to do it,” said Wilbanks. “Our mission is all the same — making sure kids are prepared for the next phase of their lives.”

As the largest school district in the state, its enrollment surpasses Cobb County, the second largest district, by nearly 70,000 students. With the opening of McClure Health Science High School last month, Gwinnett has 141 schools — 80 elementary, 29 middle, 23 high and nine specialty schools.