GHSA Doesn't Divide Paulding Schools

The Georgia High School Association’s shift from will have little effect on Paulding County’s five public high schools, but it was a close call.

The GHSA unveiled the proposed classifications Monday for all of its member schools for the next two years, and the bottom line for , , , and is nothing but the addition of an A.

Each school will move from AAAA, the second-highest class now, to AAAAA, the second-highest class next school year.

They should stay in a region together next year as well, although they won’t know which three or four other schools will join them until the GHSA announces the regional alignments Dec. 6.

Three schools now in the 15-member Region 5-AAAA with them won’t be in AAAAA next year: Douglas County is moving up to the new AAAAAA, while Alexander is saying in AAAA and Chapel Hill is dropping to AAA.

One possibility for a new school in the region is , which is moving up from AAA to AAAAA.

Allatoona and North Paulding are tied with the largest enrollment in the new AAAAA with 1,426 ninth- to 11th-graders this year, which means both just missed finding themselves as the small fish in AAAAAA instead of AAAAA’s giants.

The GHSA decided to place only 65 schools in AAAAAA while putting 71 each in AAAAA and AAAA, so North Paulding stayed with the rest of the county.

All schools have until Dec. 5 to ask to move into a higher classification, usually for geographic convenience, but that doesn’t seem to be a factor for the Paulding schools.

The attached PDF file shows all six classifications, including each school’s current or projected enrollment of ninth- to 11th-graders. There are 70 schools in AAA, 66 in AA, and 97 in A, although only 71 of the A schools play football.

You can read more about the reclassification in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the Marietta Daily Journal and Score Atlanta.