APS Redistricting: Inman Park's Survey Strategy

Editor's note: Many area neighborhood organizations are meeting to decide how they should respond to the Atlanta Public Schools' demographic survey, which is due by Dec. 16. The Inman Park Neighborhood Association recently met to discuss their strategy and IPNA President Regina Brewer has written this update on the subject.

[Dec. 7's] meeting was well attended and as usual Inman Park decided to be creative and innovative in their postion regarding the proposed re-districting of our schools. I expected nothing less. We agreed to create a position paper that articulates IPNA's position.

Because this paper is so important, I do not want to rush it. So, I am asking that you hold off completing your surveys until we put the paper out on the Yahoo group. We have an extremely talented group working on the document to ensure that it accomplishes all that we talked about [on Wednesday]. 

Some of you have asked for more specifics to include on your survey such as the value of the BeltLine to our position in the Grady Cluster, transportation concerns, looking at different models of split acadamies rather than just k-2/3-5, etc. We will also create a comprehensive list and post that on the Yahoo group as well. BE PATIENT. We are working very hard on this but also have jobs, families, etc. My goal is to have this out my Sunday evening or Monday morning, which gives us 3-4 days to make any substantial changes or add information.

It was also mentioned that someone post a list of all the upcoming meetings.  It's very fluid at this point. At the Local School Council meeting [Dec. 8], 2 additional meetings were announced in other parts of our SRT. There are so many meetings, it's like a feeding frenzy. We'll work on that as well.

I want to address the fact that some of you walked away frustrated at the process [Wednesday] night or that you didn't feel that you were heard.  I apologize if I seemed to dismiss your ideas, but we had to keep our eyes on the larger picture for now. This is NOT our last meeting and we will have plenty of time to look at other ideas and strategies. Unfortunately, we have a December 16th deadline that we must work with and there isn't room for those discussions right now. It's hard to run a meeting with so many smart, passionate, informed residents who all want to have their voices heard in such a short time. I appreciate all your support and patience. We all want the same thing!

Now, it has occurred to me that we have a special group of parents who have young children not yet at Mary Lin and that they need some additional support to help them understand this process. I am working with Jane Smith and Eric Goldberg to arrange a meeting just for those families. Look for an announcement soon on that.

Thank you again for your attendance [on Dec. 7] and for your commitment to our neighborhood, our community, and to our schools. 

Regina Brewer
President, IPNA