Plan for two Buckhead Middle Schools Less Diverse?

Two separate Buckhead middle schools are called for in the new APS redistricting options released Friday.

The proposal is likely to draw opposition from Buckhead parents, with concerns that the two schools will be unbalanced in terms of ethnic diversity,

Under Option A, and elementaries would feed into a middle school at the site, while the other Buckhead schools would go to a new middle school at the current site.  Under Option B, , with a significant number of Latino students, would also go to the Sutton campus. Option A also calls for the construction of a new Midtown middle school, while that plan is dropped in Option B.

Under redistricting,

Other concerns raised by parents include the probability that the new North Atlanta middle school would not be immediately certified by the International Baccalaurate program, now a mainstay of Buckhead schools. On the other hand, the North Atlanta campus recently received an extensive renovation, with facilities that might be considered better than Sutton's, although it was also renovated several years ago.

Last spring, APS propossed placing a separate sixth grade academy at the Sutton site and all Buckhead seventh and eighth graders at the North Atlanta site. But APS Superintendent Erroll Davis said after first taking office that he was unaware of that proposal.

The two separate middle schools would alleviate overcrowding at Sutton, now Buckhead's only public middle school.

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