Tuesday, April 30, 2013
'Many local families would have chosen to abandon MJHS, and many charter families WILL abandon their local APS schools if APS continues to appeal Judge Wendy L. Shoob's ruling.'
- OPINION
-
Tuesday, April 30
Editor's note: Atlanta parents whose children attend public charters are watching an ongoing appeal by Atlanta Public Schools of a judge's December ruling the district illegally held $2.8 million from charter schools. Some have started petitions to press the point that charter schools are a vital component to APS' success. Others, such as the Rosbottom family, have written letters to district officials to make their case directly. Natalie Rosbottom shared her letter that she wrote to APS Superintendent Erroll B. Davis Jr. and Reuben R. McDaniel III, APS board chairman. Greetings Mr. Davis and Mr. McDaniel, Our son, Reid, is a product of a K-8th grade constructivist/project-based charter school. He is now in 9th grade at Maynard Jackson …
Tuesday, April 2, 2013
The Atlanta Public Schools' program includes opportunities for students to be exposed to varied careers and universities.
Parks Middle School brought home a new trophy plus $300 for winning First Place in the annual APS "College & Career Spirit Week", according to the TalkUp APS Blog. The award was presented by Brene’ Bradley, Project Coordinator for College & Career Readiness and was accepted by Latarsha Mills Mckie, a Guidance Counselor at Parks Middle School. The program is designed to expose students, "to a variety of careers and post secondary institutes of higher learning." According to the APS blog, the competition portion is part of a district-wide contest that measures how each school promoted this event and showed spirit. You can see more photos of the Parks Middle School hallways, and all of the different colleges and universities they have …
Saturday, March 16, 2013
“Love Not Hate” is a Student, Parent, Staff and Community Forum on School Violence which was held at Price Middle School on March 6th.
The gunshot that injured one student outside of Price Middle School on January 31st, led to many discussions on APS safety and to the creation of the 'Love Not Hate' Forum which was held on March 6th for students, parents, staff, and community members. The forum's goal was to begin the discussion on steps that should be taken to curb violence in our Atlanta schools. The well attended forum included, APS Board of Education member Brenda Muhammad, Assistant Chief M. A. Perdue of the APS Security and Safety office and community activists Derek Boazman and Michael Langford. According to an article in the TalkUp APS Blog, Price staffers and community members led breakout sessions on,"topics including bullying and harassment, communication …
Tuesday, March 5, 2013
The Atlanta Board of Education has approved calendars for traditional and year round schools.
The Atlanta Board of Education voted Monday to approved calendars for traditional and year round schools that vary only slightly from the current school year calendar, according to the Atlanta Public Schools website. William Teasley, a Peoplestown resident with connections to D.H. Stanton, said the changes should have limited impact on learning because the total number of days will be the same as the current calendar. "Change is never easy but the schedule will provide families with a consistent schedule and eliminate the miscellaneous half days, work days and others that happen throughout the year," Teasley said. Some of the obvious changes include moving the first day of class. Instead of students returning on August 6, which was the …
Monday, March 4, 2013
Final approval of the calendar for the next two school years is expected. School safety could also come up.
The Atlanta Board of Education will meet Monday and is expected to adopt a new calendar for the 2013-14 and 2014-15 school years. The Live Blog of a mid-January meeting included the Superintendent's Report on the calendar issue: Changes from past calendars include the consolidation of all schools to a single calendar as well as changes to the scheduling of some staff work days. For 2013-14 and 2014-15, the superintendent’s proposal provides flexibility to principals and supervisors in the scheduling of one (1) teacher work day and in the scheduling of 200-day and 220-day staff members (e.g. counselors, social workers, assistant principals) outside of the teacher work year. This will allow schools to tailor their staff schedules to best …
Tuesday, February 12, 2013
East Atlanta Patch recognizes the accomplishments of one talented Toomer student this week.
KIRKWOOD — The Atlanta Public Schools blog, Talkup APS, has just released its Student Spotlight of the Week article in which a talented student from Toomer Elementary School was acknowledged for his recent academic accomplishments. Alex Yang, a kindergarten student at Toomer, is a bright child, "who excels in all subject areas, has artistic talents, and is also bilingual," according to the APS blog. This 6-year-old can speak both English and Mandarin. His mother was once a Chinese language teacher at Toomer, but is now teaching at North Atlanta High School. According to the blog, Alex's favorite subjects are reading and math and he himself says, “I like math because it has lots of numbers.” His teacher also is very impressed with his …
Friday, February 8, 2013
Students from all over the district attended the 2013 Technology Fair.
Results from the APS Technology Fair are listed below. This year students from all over the Atlanta Public School district came out to B.E.S.T. Academy to partake in the fair. Over 500 first place winners from 16 different recognized regional technology fairs across the state will compete at Macon State College on March 9, 2013 in over 13 different categories. According to the APS Blog, "All first place winners from APS will advance to the State Technology Fair competition. Atlanta Public Schools will be well represented." Local winners represented a plethora of schools. Please take a look at the complete list of APS Technology Fair winners.
Thursday, February 7, 2013
Atlanta Public Schools’ Superintendent Erroll B. Davis is expected to attend and discuss middle school capacity issues.
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…
Tuesday, February 5, 2013
On Tuesday evening APS parents are invited to meet and discuss Atlanta's Public Schools with city representatives.
Do you want to be more involved with your children's education or with school safety decisions? If so, you should make it out to the 2nd Annual Parents for Atlanta's Public Schools Legislative Reception on Tuesday evening. This reception will be held at Atlanta Public Schools, Center for Learning and Leadership, 130 Trinity Avenue, Atlanta, Georgia 30303. All parents and community members in Atlanta who support public education in Atlanta's public schools are invited to attend the "2nd Annual Parents for Atlanta's Public Schools Legislative Reception" on Tuesday, February 5, 2013 from 7:00 to 8:30 pm. Specially invited guests include the state elected officials in the Atlanta-Fulton County Delegation, our city's elected officials and the…
Friday, February 1, 2013
Atlanta Police Chief Turner says that they believe the shooting was gang-related.
Thursday afternoon, Atlanta's school community was shaken to its core when news surfaced that a student had been shot by a fellow student on the grounds of Price Middle School in Southeast Atlanta. Reports quickly spread to parents as the Atlanta Public Schools system began to inform parents and staff through 'robo-calls.' Fortunately the child was not critically injured and was released from the hospital Thursday evening. The shooter was taken into custody, just after he fired the gun by off-duty police officer, Investigator Solomon Bibbs, who works part-time at the school. In an evening press conference last night, Superintendent Davis, gave a brief account of what happened at the school and the immediate plans he and law enforcement …
Alice Jonsson
10:57 am on Tuesday, April 30, 2013
The public has spoken loud and clear - we want public charters. Public charters in this city have very successfully served students that traditional public schools have failed to serve and I would argue the opposite is also true in some specific cases, to be fair. Neither approach is without successes and failures, strengths and weaknesses. ANCS has had successes with students who were … more ›