Parents urged to attend Thursday's Grady State-of-the-Cluster meeting

At the start of the school year, Atlanta Public Schools Superintendent Erroll B. Davis Jr. delivered a state-of-the-district address that outlined the challenges and work the system faced. Now, school principals will hold their own forums to provide an update on the state of the schools in each cluster.

APS leaders in the East cluster will discuss the academic offerings in the schools and answer questions at a Feb. 7 meeting scheduled for 6:30 p.m. at Grady High School.

One of the hot topics among parents in East Atlanta Patch, is the status of a sixth grade academy to relieve overcrowding at Inman Middle School.

Inman pulls students from Mary Lin Elementary in Candler Park and Hope-Hill Elementary in Old Fourth Ward, as well as schools in the Virginia Highland and Midtown Patchs.

In a letter sent to parents last week Davis wrote that the district continues to price out options to seek site availability.

Some past scenarios included having the sixth grade academy housed at the now-closed Cook Elementary School in Capitol Gateway, several miles away, but Davis has expressed a preference for Cook to become a teacher training laboratory.

Inman parents have expressed a desire that the sixth grade academy be as close to the main Inman campus as possible.

Davis is traveling Thursday, but he is expected to attend the meeting which is the last State of the Cluster meeting for the East cluster.