Friday, April 20, 2012
A southwest Atlanta parent and attorney says changes in his area are unconstitutional.
An Atlanta attorney is questioning the legality of the Atlanta school board's recent approval of new school attendance zones. Attorney David H. Glass, who lives in the Summerhill community, sent a letter to the school board asking it to review the district's decision to zone the neighborhood to D.H. Stanton Elementary, arguing that it violates the 14th Amendment's equal protection clause. Glass argues that D.H. Stanton, in the Peoplestown neighborhood, is a low performing school. To be rezoned there is unfair to Summerhill when the neighborhood lobbied for and initially ended up being zoned to higher performing Parkside Elementary in Grant Park. "Parents in the Summerhill neighborhood feel their rights under the Fourteenth Amendment (Equal…
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
School board member says best interest of students, district served by her support of Davis recommendation
Buckhead school board representative Nancy Meister said Wednesday she feels she made the right decision in voting to redistrict the Pine Hills neighborhood from Garden Hills to Sarah Smith Elementary. Meister supported APS Superintendent Erroll B. Davis Jr.’s recommendation, which will shift a projected 127 students from Garden Hills to Smith. The school board in a marathon session that ended at around 2 a.m. Wednesday gave final approval to Davis' redistricting plan, which calls for the closure of seven city schools. “I was in a no-win situation,” Meister said about the Pine Hills vote. ”I had to make the decision that was the best for the district and the kids. Garden Hills is significantly overcrowded, and Sarah Smith can handle the …
Superintendent's Buckhead recommendations pass
The Atlanta Board of Education early Wednesday approved a redistricting plan that retains Superintendent Erroll B. Davis Jr.'s recommendations for Buckhead. Those recommendations include moving the entire Pine Hills neighborhood from Garden Hills Elementary into the Sarah Smith district and the conversion of Sutton Middle School into a sixth grade academy. With E. Rivers elementary students using the Sutton site for 18 months beginning with the fall of 2013, the Sutton move won't take effect until the autumn of 2015. The board decided to close seven schools and create nine clusters of elementary, middle and high schools to increase enrollment in undercapaciy schols and provide additional resources to students, according to a news release …
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
Sarah Smith asks board to table Pine Hills proposal for at least 30 days
APS School Superintendent Erroll B. Davis Jr.'s final recommendations posted Tuesday morning make no changes to his previous proposal for the North Atlanta cluster. Two controversial recommendations remain, that Sutton Middle School be "repurposed" as a sixth grade academy and that "all of Pine Hills" be redistricted from Garden Hills Elementary to Sarah Smith Elementary. The Atlanta School Board is to make a final vote Tuesday on Davis' recommendations. It meets at 2 p.m. as "a committee of the whole," then will hear public comments beginning at 6 p.m., before a legislative meeting at 7 p.m. The final vote is to be taken at the legislative meeting. The meetings will be at Jackson High School, 801 Glenwood Ave. In the latest development, …
Monday, April 9, 2012
Says community didn't have time to study plan
Sarah Smith Elementary's PTA co-presidents have asked APS Superintendent Erroll B. Davis Jr. to remove his recommendation that all of the Pine Hills neighborhood be redistricted to Smith from Garden Hills Elementary. "We are surprised and confused by this recommendation," a letter to Davis from Katie ElHamahmy and B.J. Young says. The letter, posted on Sarah Smith's web site, says that Davis' proposal for the entire Pine Hills neighborhood, as defined by the city of Atlanta, to be placed in the Sarah Smith district came without the community having sufficient time to study the proposal and respond. It came the day before the APS went on spring break, the letter points out. APS spokesman Keith Bromery said in an email Monday that the …
Patch features an interactive map, showing the various schools in our communities impacted most by APS recommendations.
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Monday, April 9, 2012
From Patch Reports The APS superintendent's office announced Monday afternoon that its final redistricting and school closure recommendations will be released late Monday night. These will be the recommendations on which the APS Board of Education will vote on Tuesday. According to the APS' Twitter feed, the recommendations will be posted by 9:30 p.m. Monday, or as late as 10 p.m. if Superintendent Erroll B. Davis Jr. makes any changes After months of controversy and debate, the board is set to vote on Davis' latest redistricting and closure recommendations on Tuesday, a meeting which has been moved to Jackson High School to accommodate a larger audience. In his most recent set of recommendations, Davis decided to move the entire Pine …
Wednesday, April 4, 2012
Email blast calls for Buckhead school's boundaries to remain intact, and says superintendent's plan will cause overcrowding
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Wednesday, April 4, 2012
From Patch Reports APS School Superintendent Erroll B. Davis Jr.'s latest redistricting plan to include the entire Pine Hills neighborhood in the Sarah Smith Elementary district is drawing opposition from the school's PTA. Davis said he was proposing the move to relieve overcrowding at Garden Hills Elementary. The Atlanta School Board is to make the final redistricting vote on April 10. According to the map accompanying Davis' final recommendations, released late Saturdsy, the Pine Hlls area would match the official city boundaries for the community, including neighborhoods east of Ga. 400 and north of I-85, the PTA said. This would bring 120 additional students to Sarah Smith, causing it to be overcapacity in nine of the next 10 years, …
Sunday, April 1, 2012
Superintendent in final recommendation makes change to relieve Garden Hills overcrowding
The entire Pine Hills neighborhood would attend Sarah Smith Elementary School under the final redistricting recommendation posted by APS School Superintendent Erroll B. Davis Jr. late Saturday night. "All of Pine Hills will be zoned to Smith, in order to relieve overcrowding at Garden Hills," Davis said. Pine Hills for years has been split between Garden Hills Elementary and Smith. The rest of Davis' final recommendations for Buckhead schools essentially remain the same as his preliminary plan, with his call remaining for the present Sutton Middle School site to eventually be "repurposed" as a sixth grade academy. That would occur after E. Rivers Elementary students are moved to the present Sutton site in the fall of 2013 for 18 months and…
Friday, March 30, 2012
Says school closures needed for better allocation of resources
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Friday, March 30, 2012
From Patch Reports APS School Superintendent Erroll B. Davis Jr. posted a letter Friday on the school system's web site, in which he spoke about the redistricting process and the need to close 13 schools and reoganize the system into 10 clusters. He issued the letter as APS headed to spring break next week. His letter didn't mention when he'd post a revised set of proposals. He is expected to do so this weekend. Here is Davis' letter: Dear APS students, parents, employees, and supporters, There are occasional challenges in life that simply cannot be avoided and must be faced for the benefit of all concerned. This is the situation with the current redistricting effort, as we attempt to make needed changes in order for all students to …
Thursday, March 29, 2012
Board to hear community comments before redistricting action
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Thursday, March 29, 2012
From Patch Reports The Atlanta School Board will hear community comments beginning at 6 p.m. Tuesday, April 10, before taking final action on school redistricting. According to an APS announcement, the speaker sign-in will be from 5 until 5:50 p.m. The meeting has been moved to Maynard Jackson High School, 801 Glenwood Ave., because a big crowd is expected to speak before the board votes on Superintendent Errroll B. Davis Jr.'s final recommendations for school redistricting across the city. The board's legislative meeting is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. Before those sessions, the school board will meet as a committee of the whole for a work session, beginning at 2 p.m. Along with Davis presenting his final plan for school districts, …
KM
10:44 am on Friday, April 13, 2012
Well said! more ›