Wesley International Academy to Move to Former Cook Elementary School Space

Agreement is for one year as school — which wants to stay in the Jackson cluster — seeks a permanent solution.

Atlanta Public Schools and Wesley International Academy have reached a preliminary agreement that will allow the charter school to move into the now-closed Cook Elementary School for the 2013-14 academic year. Both sides expect the deal to be finalized and signed in the next few days. It is only for one year, but it will save Wesley, a K-8 school, roughly $700,000 in rent it pays to Imagine Schools Inc. for its current space in Custer/McDonough/Guice. That money will instead go toward teacher training, supplies and student materials, and other education-related investments at the school, which serves baout 700 kids. “This is a big deal for us. This negotiation was hard fought,” Kamau Bobb, Wesley’s board chairman, told East Atlanta Patch…

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APS Superintendent Wants Cook Elementary For Teacher Training Lab

Cook off the table for Wesley International Academy, but Davis says there other options.

Atlanta Public Schools Superintendent Erroll B. Davis Jr. wants to use the now-closed Cook Elementary School as a teacher training center. "It is my intention to use Cook as a teacher excellence institute," Davis said in a meeting Thursday night with a group of parents mostly from the Jackson High School cluster. "We're going to train teachers and take them out of the classrooms in a more timely manner if they're not performing in a way that we'd like." The institute would serve as a lab of sorts, tapping into the expertise at Georgia State University, he said. Teachers would get classroom instruction and practice on avatar or virtual students, he told the parents and teachers and principals in attendance. He said he wants Cook — one of …

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Patch Voices

APS Redistricting: Wesley International Academy Parents To Press Cook Utilization

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 …

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APS Redistricting: Wesley International Academy Wants To Utilize Cook Campus

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 …

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After Months Of Debate, A Vote — And For D.H. Stanton, A Reprieve

Marathon meeting of parents and APS officials results in adoption of redistricting plan — with modifications.

Following months of discussion and sometimes cantakerous debate, the Atlanta Public Schools' Board of Education voted unanimously to approve a set of rezoning recommendations that results in school closures, but spares D.H. Stanton Elementary and two others. The vote — which came at 11:31 p.m. — followed several hours of discussion from parents and supporters of D.H. Stanton, F.L. Stanton and Towns elementary schools who pleaded with board members to keep the three institutions open. Rueben R. McDaniel III, APS' board chairman, suggested the final plan submitted earlier Tuesday by district Superintendent Erroll B. Davis Jr. be revised to take them off the list of 10 slated for closure. McDaniel's move was welcomed by those schools' …

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Péralte Paul

2:49 pm on Friday, April 13, 2012

Hi, everyone: APS tells me they will post the updated attendance zone maps tonight.   more ›

Patch Voices

APS Redistricting: Summerhill Favors Final Plan

'This is a phenomenal opportunity for our children.'

Editor's note: The Organized Neighbors of Summerhill supports the final plan developed by Atlanta Public Schools Superintendent Erroll B. Davis Jr. This is the letter ONA sent to district officials, which it shared with East Atlanta Patch. To: Superintendent Erroll Davis and the Atlanta Board of Education The Summerhill community wholeheartedly supports Atlanta Public Schools final demographic map and recommendations that were released on March 31, 2012. We request that the Atlanta Board of Education vote to approve the recommendations on Tuesday, April 10, 2012. We believe the recommendation to zone Summerhill to Parkside, will meet the needs of our children and families that have been displaced by the closure of Ed Cook Elementary. This …

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Summerhill Neighborhood Pushes Parkside Petition

Parkside Elementary is a "phenomenal opportunity" for Summerhill.

For months, as the Atlanta Public Schools redistricting morphed into a final plan the APS Board of Education will vote on next week, a small cadre of parents from Summerhill pushed their two-word solution: Parkside Elementary. The tiny neighborhood got its wish as APS Superintendent Erroll B. Davis Jr.'s final plan includes rezoning Summerhill to Parkside, which is in neighboring Grant Park. But Summerhill is seeking a little extra insurance; some in the neighborhood have created a petition on Change.org — Support Summerhill to Parkside — to impress upon the board, just how much they want that scenario as the final outcome. Though currently zoned to attend Cook Elementary in the Capitol Gateway neighborhood to the north, the most vocal …

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Davis' Final APS Redistricting Plan: Keep Coan Middle And Whitefoord Elementary Open

Among the casualties: D.H. Stanton Elementary and Cook Elementary schools.

Atlanta Public Schools Superintendent Erroll B. Davis Jr. released his final recommendation for the district's massive rezoning, which calls for 10 schools to shut their doors at the end of the school year. The plan, released late Saturday night, calls for East Lake Elementary to close. That closure was widely expected since the seven preliminary plans called for it to shut down. But Davis' proposal has a few surprises, too. Among them: Whitefoord Elementary and Coan Middle schools — both in the Edgewood neighborhood — are spared from closure. Supporters of both Coan and Whitefoord fought bitterly to keep those schools open. Though Coan stays open, its middle schoolers will go to East Lake Elementary for the 2012-13 school year. That's …

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APS Redistricting: Jackson And Grady Cluster Parents Seek Answers

Superintendent addresses questions ranging from why blame parents for failing schools to overhead at APS' central office to perceived neglect of Southeast Atlanta.

Marking his third of four public engagements since releasing his preliminary redistricting plan, Atlanta Public Schools Superintendent Erroll B. Davis Jr. met with hundreds of parents, students and teachers in the Jackson and Grady high schools clusters Wednesday night. Davis answered scores of questions from the audience during a marathon 4-hour-plus meeting at Jackson High School, the last 30 minutes of which was held in the dark after a transformer malfunctioned. Though Jackson and Grady draw from neighborhoods Southeast and Northeast Atlanta, respectively, the bulk of questions came from supporters of Coan Middle School in Edgewood, one of 13 Davis is recommending for closure. Under Davis' plan, the closures — which also include …

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APS Redistricting: Cook Elementary Supporters Seek Closure Reprieve

'This is not only a school, this is a family.'

 Parents — some with tears in their eyes — pleaded with Atlanta Public Schools officials last week to keep Cook Elementary School open and off the redistricting closure list. Cook Elementary, which is in the Capitol Gateway neighborhood and is the zoned institution for other neighborhoods including Summerhill and Cabbagetown, is one of the 13 APS Superintendent Erroll B. Davis Jr. is recommending for closure. The closure of underutilized schools, APS says, would save the district $6.5 million a year, or $500,000 per school. Cook, which has capacity for 638 pupils, has 312 enrolled students and 67 of those are transfer students from other zones. District officials told parents the school's small population is hurting it. "Right now, when we…

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