Schools

Parents Approve of High School Site Decision

School board chooses IBM location on Northside Parkway

Parents welcomed the Atlanta school board's decision Monday night to build a new Buckhead high school on the 56-acre IBM site at 4111 Northside Parkway.

The location, 3.6 miles north of the present North Atlanta High, "offers so much from a land/opportunity perspective," Buckhead school board member Nancy Meister said in an e-mail announcing the decision to authorize the spending of $56.2 million for the site. The decision was made a year after the APS announced plans to build the new high school and use the North Atlanta High site on Northside Drive to relieve crowding at Sutton Middle School.

"The process has been very involved, many sites were considered, and I am quite pleased with the administration's recommendation," Meister said. "A 56-acre property, such as this, will allow the district to stay ahead of the anticipated growth. The proposed location will allow for athletic facilities such as a football practice field, soccer field, softball field and baseball field. Long term, I would anticipate the property to allow the district to expand athletic facilities and other opportunities."

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Chris Riggall, a parent who in January launched a petition of North Atlanta parents in favor of a more centrally located site, expressed his approval of the board's decision.

"It's great to see APS continuing to invest in our schools in this community, and from that standpoint, a solution that addresses Sutton overcrowding is something everybody has been anxious for," said Riggall, who has a child at North Atlanta and another at Sutton.

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Riggall said "personally, I prefer a more centrally located site that was accessible by foot and by bike, and I think it would be very problematic to ride a bike or walk to that site. But there are some real positives I'm sure in that location. ...When all is said and done, we need a new facility, and now we move forward with it."

The school will replace , which will be used as either as a second middle school or a sixth-grade academy to alleviate overcrowding at at present Buckhead's only middle school.

Sutton PTA co-president Reide Onley, who attended the school board meeting, said that the IBM site "is the best site of the four I was aware of them exploring." He said the site is the best-prepared for construction and already has such infrastructure as sewer and power.

The size of the site "gives them a little more flexibility for a lot more things from athletics fields to parking and infrastructure," he said. "They might be able to take advantage of of existing buildings, which would save some time." 

He said he hopes the work can be done in 18 months, with the possibility of opening for the 2012-13 school year. He said it's more likely to be ready for the fall of 2013. One of his children will be a freshman at North Atlanta next year and the other is a sixth grader at Sutton.

The IBM site emerged as the leading candidate for the new school site after APS officials in December dropped consideration of the Paces Apartments complex in the Buckhead Village area following neighborhood opposition.

The vote enables the school system to negotiate exclusively for the property, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported. The board will vote again to complete the site's purchase, but  officials don't foresee any problems, the AJC said. 

Meister said that the school system will seek community input in the planning of the new high school.

"The administration will be engaged in a critical and aggressive due diligence process over the next few months. I look forward to ensuring that all stakeholder feedback is heard and input is addressed."

A remaining key decision is whether to make the North Atlanta site a new middle school or convert it to a sixth-grade academy, with seventh and eighth graders attending Sutton.

Onley said he sees positives and negatives to each choice, and that "it'll be a discussion, I promise you that."

He said that the most important factor is to "figure out what's best for the kids. The social, the physical, the emotional, there's a lot that goes into the decision and not just what's closer and more convenient. Children need to be the highest priority."


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