🎓 Gwinnett County Schools: A Case Study in Scale and Momentum

Let’s talk about Gwinnett County Public Schools (GCPS) — Georgia’s education behemoth. Nearly 13,000 grads this year. Graduation rate? 84%, highest in a decade. That’s not just a number — it’s a signal. In a system the size of a Fortune 500 company, incremental progress is innovation.

What’s behind it? Focus and structure. Over 20 high schools now graduate more than 80% of their students. A dozen break 90%. Eleven hit all-time highs. That’s what you get when you run education like infrastructure — not charity.

But let’s not romanticize it. The district’s still wrestling with the equity gap — especially for multilingual and low-income students. The real KPI isn’t the rate itself, but who’s still not crossing the stage. GCPS’s “Blueprint for the Future” calls for 85% next year, but the big bet is whether they can make that lift inclusive.

In short: execution matters. Gwinnett isn’t chasing prestige; it’s scaling competence — and that’s sexier than any Ivy League headline.

🎢 Malibu Norcross: The End of an Era (and a Business Model)

Now to Malibu Norcross — the family amusement park that shut down after two decades. For thousands of Atlanta-area families, it was nostalgia incarnate. For the parent company, Herschend Family Entertainment, it was a line item that no longer penciled out.

This isn’t just a “park closes” story. It’s a macro trend. Experience-based businesses are bifurcating: mega-scale (Disney, Universal) or micro-niche (craft breweries, boutique VR). The mid-tier — places like Malibu — are getting squeezed. Rising insurance costs, shrinking attention spans, and the TikTokification of leisure: tough combo.

Herschend’s move to kill its “family entertainment center” model is a cold, rational pivot. Less local mini-golf, more Dollywood. The irony? Malibu’s closure got more online engagement than most of their live attractions.

Bottom line: every industry consolidates. Amusement parks are just feeling what retail, restaurants, and regional news already have — go big, go niche, or go home.

Together With

🎨 Growing the Arts in Lilburn — Monday Deal

Date: Monday, October 6, 2025
Location: Gwinnett Historic Courthouse, 185 W Crogan St, Lilburn, GA (in Gwinnett)

The Deal
• Free admission + art stroll (open gallery, local artists, live demos)
• Optional purchases: artwork, prints, food vendors on site
• Valid all day (10:00 AM – 4:00 PM)

Why it matters
Community arts days like this scale cultural access. Zero entry cost lowers barriers for families and aspiring artists. The economic impact? Local artists get exposure, vendors sell, the courthouse sees foot traffic.
It’s a soft “entertainment at scale” move — small transaction volume per person, but across many attendees it adds up.
Also: in the context of a county pushing narratives of inclusion and growth, deals like this show civic investment in culture, not just infrastructure.

Original Articles

1. Original Articles

   1. Gwinnett County Public Schools Graduation Rate Hits 10-Year High
      Gwinnett County Public Schools Newsroom

   2. Malibu Norcross Amusement Park Shuts Down After Two Decades
      People Magazine
      WSB-TV News