Schools

APS Redistricting: Kirkwood Rejects Options A & B

Keep Kirkwood together at Toomer Elementary, bring East Lake's children to Toomer if their school closes and bring Mary Lin Elementary to Coan Middle School.

The Kirkwood Neighbors' Organization, which represents the interests of that community, voted last week on a response to the demographers' two options with respect to the current preliminary plans parents and district officials are reviewing.

Under Option A: all of Kirkwood would be zoned for Toomer Elementary, Coan Middle and Jackson High schools.

Under Option B: The neighborhood is split. Half of Kirkwood is zoned for Toomer Elementary, Inman Middle and Grady High schools. The other is zoned for Burgess-Peterson Academy and Coan Middle and Jackson High schools or Whitefoord Elementary, Coan Middle and Jackson High schools.

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KNO, in it's 5-page position statement response to the options, says neither is acceptable and expresses the desire for the entire neighborhood to remain in the Grady cluster where Kirkwood's children would attend Toomer, Coan and Grady.

The neighborhood also says if East Lake Elementary closes — the demographers' original four plans and revised two options calls for its closure — those kids should come to Toomer and stay in the Grady cluster. (Currently, half of East Lake is in the Grady Cluster, the other half is in Jackson.)

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And KNO says Mary Lin Elementary, which is in neighboring Candler Park and serves that community's children along with those from Inman Park and Lake Claire, should be rezoned for Coan Middle.

Currently, Mary Lin students are zoned to attend Inman Middle School.

But Inman Middle is at capacity, which explains a part of the demographers' plans that call for the creation of a new middle school in Buckhead to relieve overcrowding from the communities that currently feed Inman.

Coan Middle is under-capacity and has plenty of room, KNO argues in its statement. The group says Mary Lin is physically closer to Coan Middle — just 1.4 miles away by KNO's calculations, compared with a 2.1 mile distance from Inman Middle.


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