ATLANTA (CBS ATLANTA) -
It is only the first day of the school year and already a number of parents are griping about their children's new schools.
That is because they were forced to send their kids to other schools after the Atlanta Board of Education shut their old ones.
"They were used to where they were," said William Flanagan, whose three daughters Janayah, Kanayah and Zanarah, loved their old school, Cook Elementary. Flanagan said the jury is still out after their first day at their new school, Hope-Hill.
"A lot of their friends they don't see anymore," Flanagan said.
There is no mistaking how Ayana Williams feels about taking her two young daughters Tayana and Tawana to Hope-Hill.
"I'm very disappointed," said Williams, whose daughters also went to Cook. "It's an inconvenience because we had a school right there."
Cook is one of five schools the district closed because of dropping enrollment. One thousand students had to be transferred to other schools.
About 47,000 students attend Atlanta Public Schools. The district had 13,000 empty seats, which cost lots of money to cool, heat and light. A spokesman for the board of education said the district had no choice but to shut schools with low enrollment.
For Williams, that means a lot more travel time.
"I can't just walk to my kids school anymore from my apartment. I have to get on the bus," Williams said.
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