Tuesday, September 18, 2012
Superintendent Erroll Davis suggests moving some students to an unused school building in the Old Fourth Ward.
Maybe we need to build a new middle school to relieve overcrowding at Inman Middle School. Or maybe we should house 6th or 8th-graders in a separate academy, possibly located in the Old Fourth Ward. This is what Atlanta Public Schools Superintendent Erroll B. Davis Jr. told a task force on Tuesday morning at a packed meeting at Inman Middle School. “I don’t need consensus on anything. I don’t need votes. I need your best thinking,” the superintendent told the task force. More than 60 parents turned out for the meeting, sitting on the floor when they ran out of chairs. But questions and discussion were limited to the task force members – about 20 in attendance. Davis suggested that an academy could be housed in an annex close to the …
Monday, June 4, 2012
Parents say allowing their charter school to relocate to Cook, which closed this year, makes sense on several levels.
Editor's note: To parents of Wesley International Academy in Custer/McDonough/Guice, it's a no-brainer: Their charter school needs a new home. Atlanta Public Schools closed seven schools amidst falling enrollments and property tax revenue, including Cook Elementary in Capitol Gateway. Wesley parents want to rent Cook and APS' approval would mean $875,000 a year in rent to the district — money, parents say, that could be used to bolster academic programs. Wesley parents, who already have 657 signatures on a petition for the Wesley-to-Cook initiative, plan to make their case for APS to support the measure as well as more attention to the Jackson High School cluster at the June 4 meeting of the APS Board of Education. Richard Quartarone, a …
Schools superintendent opposes expansion.
The Atlanta Public Schools' Board of Education is expected to vote today on a request by East Lake's Drew Charter School to expand to include a high school. Despite a concerted drive by parents and supporters of the school — which enjoys the highest academic ranking of the elementary schools that serve East Atlanta Patch neighborhoods — APS Superintendent Erroll B. Davis Jr. opposes the expansion. The reason: A Drew Charter Senior Academy would compete with Jackson High School, located a few miles away in Grant Park, for students. The district, which recently completed a citywide redistricting to reduce the number of empty seats, still has 6,200 vacant desks at the high school level. "Drew Charter School’s planned expansion is not aligned …
Thursday, May 17, 2012
Ask questions and view a presentation of the planned $40 million project.
The Southeast Atlanta Communities for Schools is hosting a meeting today with the architects behind the $40 million planned renovation of Jackson High School in Grant Park. SEACS, which advocates for and seeks to improve the quality of education in the institutions that comprise the Jackson High School Cluster, is hosting the 6:30 p.m. meeting at Burgess-Peterson Academy, 480 Clifton St. SE. SEACS also will take nominations for its governing board. Atlanta Public Schools hired architectural firm Perkins+Will — which is behind the $2.8 billion Atlanta BeltLine project — to lead the Jackson renovations. APS projects the Jackson refurbishments, slated to begin at the end of this school year, will be complete by the start of the 2013-14 …
Monday, May 14, 2012
WIA parents create petition to draw attention and support for move.
A group of parents at Wesley International Academy in Custer/McDonough/Guice have started a petition to convince Atlanta Public Schools officials that the public charter school should be allowed to move in to Cook Elementary School. Cook, which is a few miles away from Wesley's current home on Custer Avenue SE, is one of seven APS schools that will close at the end of the 2011-12 school year. "According to Superintendent Davis, the 'sole purpose' of closing Cook Elementary and other schools was the 'improvement of the education delivered to students every day,' " the petition reads. "Wesley pays $875,000.00 in rent to a real estate company in Virginia. If Wesley moves to a closed school, this $875,000.00 can improve education for APS …
Wednesday, May 2, 2012
Superintendent's guiding principles regarding neighborhood cohesion were not mandatory.
In the final redistricting analysis, most of the neighborhoods that comprise East Atlanta Patch got what they wanted. Among the highlights: Those communities got what they wanted, partly based on a series of guiding principles Atlanta Public Schools Superintendent Erroll B. Davis Jr. established as a blueprint for what would shape the final outcome. One of those key principles was to eliminate split-school attendance zones. But in the neighborhood of Custer/McDonough/Guice, a hamlet of 1,257 residents, the community remains split. The neighborhood is roughly bounded by Intrenchment Creek, Moreland Avenue, McDonough Boulevard and an artificial boundary to the east of Benteen Park Drive and Elleby Road. It is wholly zoned to attend King …
Monday, April 30, 2012
But board fails to take action on Custer/McDonough/Guice, which remains the only neighborhood split-zoned to two grammar schools.
The Atlanta Public Schools Board of Education — following more than an hour of discussion from the public and board members — voted Monday to rezone Summerhill to Parkside Elementary in Grant Park. The decision — Nancy Meister, who represents Buckhead Patch schools, was the lone dissenting vote — avoids a lawsuit Summerhill residents threatened to file against APS. Meister, a real estate agent, did not directly explain her no vote. But in an e-mail to East Atlanta Patch, she said she does support D.H. Stanton Elementary, the school Summerhill was slated to attend. "I believe that with support from the system and community D.H. Stanton will be a great school for all children. The residents of the Peoplestown community are dedicated to …
Events of note of interest to and affecting residents of East Atlanta Patch
— The Neighborhood Planning Unit-W Land Use and Zoning Committee meeting which would normally take place on May 1st at Martha Brown United Methodist Church, 468 Moreland Ave. has been moved to Monday, May 7th.
Sunday, April 29, 2012
Once on the brink of closure, its supporters say they're working on a turn-around plan.
PEOPLESTOWN — On a recent tour of D.H. Stanton Elementary, Langston Longley, a first grade teacher, showed his visitors newly planted flowers and landscaping in the school's courtyard. As Longley and students worked in the garden, teachers who passed the windows that overlooked the courtyard came outside to inquire about what was happening. "We're planting flowers," Longley answered them, recounting the story to his visitors. The teachers' response was simple but significant:" 'Do you need any help?' " The creation of the flower garden and the renewed pop of life in the courtyard underscores what the surrounding Peoplestown community says is taking root at 970 Martin St.: Change. In the old D.H. Stanton, they would not have inquired, …
Saturday, April 28, 2012
Communities should have the same goal: creating an educational foundation for success in all children.
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Saturday, April 28, 2012
by Micah A. Rowland Greetings to all our neighbors: As we approach the final hour and come closer to finalization for our Atlanta Public Schools redistricting maps, I would hope that we could come to solidarity as a unified community in reaching our victory. We will all find that living together in a community builds strong relationships and friendships that I hope will last and live with us for an entire lifetime. Now that the time is upon us, it is time to lay down our different viewpoints and work together to bring our dreams to fruition. Let this be our time, our opportunity to find common ground and take the first step in building a lasting relationship across community boundaries. It’s important as we move forward through APS for a …
Ann Jones
10:12 am on Thursday, September 20, 2012
ken - the boarding school comment was in reference to APS inability to efficiently transport our kids (not how fast I drive). We currently live 1.5 miles away, and it's a 1 hour bus ride. We're 4 miles to the new school, so based on APS history, that means a 4 hour bus ride (one-way)--hence the comment. Pure sarcasm - and directed at APS... more ›