APS wants to close 13 schools. Echoes of DeKalb’s experience.
The Atlanta school board will take up school closings today. (AJC file)
Atlanta school chief Erroll Davis is recommending 13 schools close and new attendance lines be drawn across the district.
While the names of the 13 schools have been released, the new attendance lines/feeder systems have not. (You can read the AJC news story here.)
If you remember, DeKalb started with a plan to shutter 14 schools, but the public outcry pared the list down to eight schools. I wonder if the same retreat will occur in Atlanta if enough parents rise up in protest.
Thus far, the most attention has been to the proposed redrawing of attendance lines in those APS neighborhoods where the elementary schools have become community focal points. But there are several beloved neighborhood schools on this closing list, so I suspect parents will be upset and will seek a reconsideration.
Davis wants 10 school clusters, but those boundary lines – which parents are anxious to see – will be released later this week.
The APS board meets today and Davis will present his school closing recommendations. (Note that a few of these schools had the most serious allegations of cheating.)
The 14 schools are:
Parks Middle School
Capitol View Elementary School
Thomasville Heights Elementary School
Boyd Elementary School
F.L. Stanton Elementary School
White Elementary School
Fain Elementary School
Cook Elementary School
Coan Middle School
East Lake Elementary School;
Humphries Elementary School
Kennedy Middle School
Herndon Elementary School
–From Maureen Downey, for the AJC Get Schooled blog
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130 comments Add your comment
To CC
March 5th, 2012
5:27 pm
Cc you wrote “We’ve worked hard in this area to build strong neighborhoods around racial diversity. We’re some of the only areas in the APS that truly reflect the racial makeup of Atlanta.”
Reflecting the racial makeup of Atlanta is not a goal to be proud of in my mind. I speak for others too. A real goal is simply the quality of education. To start with, we have to have quality teachers with integrity. Both Toomer and Coan had horrible cheating scores (21% and around 50%). Those teachers who cheated, lied and stole are still “teaching” in those schools. So you can have all the diversity you like; you can have a brand new building; you can have a state of the art computer system but if the teachers are croooked, you have nothing.
Wealthy parents and students don’t want to attend any scandal school. We North of Dekalbers would much rather stay in our overcrowded 75 year old school and slap trailers out in the yard rather than risk our child’s education and well-being to those dishonest, lying, cheating teachers and administrators.
It’s not about race. It’s not about wealth. It’s about integrity.
GM
chillywilly
March 5th, 2012
5:55 pm
I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again; Erroll Davis is no different than Beverly Hall. Davis talks a good talk, but in my opinion, he’s nothing but a weak wimp. I watched him on TV talking about the emails that he received (protecting my country club, etc.) and how he thank God for spam filters. It’s obvious that the Chamber of Commerce controls him.
Mike
March 5th, 2012
6:03 pm
It is amazing how people in kirkwood are so upset over Coan. It is/was a crappy school that nobody would choose for their child to willingly attend. Good riddance.
The people on here complaining would never have sent their child there anyway. Nobody from the Edgewood neighborhood right next door is complaining.
Squeaky Wheel Gets the Grease
March 5th, 2012
6:06 pm
It is going to be hard to keep Coan and King open. Once you remove the Inman feeder schools, there simply aren’t 1250 students left. Middle schools need just over 600 to earn an assistant principal slot – a goal of this redistricting. Toomer families, maybe you should fight to keep the 6th grade academy at Coan and ask to join the Grady cluster???
Simmer Down
March 5th, 2012
6:10 pm
Face the facts people – schools have to close. When that happens people get upset. Overall the plan seems like a step in the right direction. The same kids going to elementary stay with the same kids all the way through high school. Very good idea. I agree the Kirkwood folks got messed up but we welcome you to King with the hopes you take all this frustration and put it to good use making it a great place. We – the people south of 20 – welcome your help in the battle to make our schools better (and accountable). I look forward to the day when Maynard Jackson is the best high school in the system with the help of Kirkwood, East Atlanta, Grant Park, Ormewood and the rest.
cc
March 5th, 2012
6:10 pm
Sorry GM, but if you can say, “Reflecting the racial makeup of Atlanta is not a goal to be proud of in my mind. I speak for others too,” then I find it hard to believe it’s not about race. We love our racially mixed neighborhoods and they’re no more crime ridden than yours. That’s just white fright.
We would love to have great schools in our neighborhood and in fact, Drew Charter School is doing very well. But our kids are not getting kicked out of Coan, they’re getting kicked our of Inman and Grady and the idea that parents here don’t care about their child’s education is ridiculous. And no one is handing you guys Coan in it’s current iteration. They’re just going to use the building so your kids can go to a brand spanking new academy while kids who live across the street have to go somewhere south of I-20. That’s integrity? And you’re telling me a brand new school with brand new teachers for Inman’s sixth grade is not being opposed because you guys north of Dekalb don’t want to cross into an area that looks more like Atlanta than Iowa?
Part of this whole redistricting was supposed to include not sending any child to a worse school than they were currently attending. Jackson is demonstrably worse than Grady and wherever they’re planning to send our kids to middle school you can bet it’s worse than Inman. So just stop your whining. You know they’re going to take care of you guys in the end.
Top School
March 5th, 2012
6:11 pm
@ ChillyWilly – I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again; Erroll Davis is no different than Beverly Hall. Davis talks a good talk, but in my opinion, he’s nothing but a weak wimp. I watched him on TV talking about the emails that he received (protecting my country club, etc.) and how he thank God for spam filters. It’s obvious that the Chamber of Commerce controls him.
YES, we’ve said this almost 10 years ago…Same beat…different day.
Simmer Down
March 5th, 2012
6:22 pm
One other point – I grew up in Atlanta. Grady was the armpit of schools when I was a kid. We use to play basketball against them and we hated to go there. Now people fight to go there because the school has been reborn. There really is not a difference between Grady then and Maynard and King now. What causes change is parental involvement. Look – we are getting a new high school (Maynard) with an IB program. We have a chance to set the course. Please stop complaining and start caring and we can make it better than Grady. Get on board the bus – sorry Kirkwood for the pun.
Atlanta Mom
March 5th, 2012
6:23 pm
You know, 30 years ago, people didn’t want their children at Grady. But, 30 years ago, brave neighborhood parents, went to their elementary schools and said: you will educate our children, and we’ll make sure you do. As those children continued upward, those parents maintained their vigilance. Maybe, the fine parents of Kirkwood, Toomer and Eastlake need to do the same thing.
bearcatn8
March 5th, 2012
6:28 pm
Can someone please explain to me why it is “racist” or “segregationist” for families to want to keep Inman as is as opposed to sending their kids to Coan? According to greatschools.org, Inman middle (where Lin families want to stay) is 51% african american (state average 38%), 42% caucasion (state average 46%), and 5% hispanic (state average 10%).
In other words, Inman Middle made up of a majority of African American/Hispanic students. How exactly is wanting to stay there “segregationist?”
FYI – here is the website where my stats came from: http://www.greatschools.org/cgi-bin/ga/other/35#toc
Positive
March 5th, 2012
6:29 pm
While we are being distracted by the demographic study, Karen Waldon is silently creating new positions to the tune of at least 1/2 million dollars for 4 newly created jobs. They will be blindly approved by the board tonight with no questions, just as they did with Hall. Yet another layer of padding for the CLL and another version of the Friends and Family program. We are being duped and distracted while business as usual goes on at the central office. The people who should be angry are the teachers…they haven’t had a raise in about 4-5 years and have been frozen on their steps for 3 or more years. How does Erroll and Company justify hiring these 6-figure salary people when he is furloughing? Inquiring minds want to know…
Atlanta Mom
March 5th, 2012
6:54 pm
It was about six years ago, when Crim HS was closed as a traditional HS, that parts of Kirkwood and Toomer were zoned to the Grady Cluster. At the junction, many Grady parents objected for this exact reason. The school was not big enough to hold everybody. APS didn’t want to hear it, and so they didn’t. So, it’s not like Kirkwood was and forever has been part of Grady. It’s a recent development.
Enough Already
March 5th, 2012
7:03 pm
I’m so tired of hearing the parents north of DeKalb threaten to move or go to private school. If private school was an option for them, they would have enrolled their children a long time ago and wouldn’t be spending countless hours on blogs degrading other neighborhoods (@ GM)
APS isn’t a world-class school system and Lin and the other “high-performing” schools are just the lesser of the evils. Truly wealthy parents aren’t “preparing for battle” because their kids are already in private school and have been since they moved in-town. North of DeKalb parents are scared that they may have bit off more than they can chew (mortgage + private school tuition = living check to check).
Just move. Someone will buy your house and make due with the school options. The suburbs awaits you.
Mike's excellent point
March 5th, 2012
7:47 pm
Mike, you made an excellent point that “It is amazing how people in kirkwood are so upset over Coan. It is/was a crappy school that nobody would choose for their child to willingly attend. Good riddance.”
….only the alternative, King MS is even more wretched than Coan (hard to imagine I realize) but Coan and King are like the turds in the punchbowl. No one wants the drink that punch (Coan) and nobody wants to ear that turd (King).
ew.
GM
Enougher Already
March 5th, 2012
7:49 pm
@Enough Already
And I am so tired of hearing South of Dekalb parents demand that NoD parents send their kids to failing and underutilized schools to “fix” those schools (as if such an approach would work, which it wouldn’t). You want my chilren to go to one of the schools SoD? Fine, first convince the families in YOUR community to go there. Once you have done that, we can talk about poaching kids from NoD schools.
To Enough Already
March 5th, 2012
7:55 pm
EAlready, Hi, I’m GM.
You made me laugh. You said “I’m so tired of hearing the parents north of DeKalb threaten to move or go to private school. If private school was an option for them, they would have enrolled their children a long time ago and wouldn’t be spending countless hours on blogs degrading other neighborhoods (@ GM)”
Private school is an option for many of us — I’ve already paid for my kids to go to private school next year because I didn’t know the outcome of this debacle…and I think you are trying to suggest that we don’t have enough money to do so. What you underestimate is first of all, many of us don’t flaunt what we have. We spend our money on intangible things and unlike our showy counterparts, we don’t spend it on cars and Juicy Couture jeans and purses and we don’t spend our money on Gosh-awful two inch acrylic nails with tacky airbrush.
We do what we have to do to provide our children with an education.
….but we don’t have to debate it. The proof is in the demographics. In the 70s, Inman Park, a former glorious, rich, neighborhood became a bonafide slum….because of the schools. People left for the suburbs.
If you don’t know your history, you’ll be forced to repeat it.
People may still live intown until they sell their homes but they will either go private, form a charter, homeschool, hire a governess or rent an apartment in Dekalb county schools and drop off and pick up.
People who really care about education (like we Northern Dekalbers) will do anything to provide a better education for our children and I am sure you will never understand that fundamental difference between truly educated individuals and parents…and the rest of you.
GM
Kirkwood dad
March 5th, 2012
7:57 pm
@Mike You’re 100% correct… not a chance I’d ever send my kids to such a crap school anyway. The reality is I made the choice to send my kids to private school the day I bought my house in Kirkwood. The biggest problem is that the value of my already-upside down house is going to drop even more. I guess I’ll be appealing my property taxes AGAIN this year…
Howard?
March 5th, 2012
8:11 pm
Have any of you ever been inside the Howard building? I can’t believe it is still standing. NO WAY can kids go there. It would have to be gutted and rebuilt. Why would APS build a new building with plenty of buildings avail? What about Cook? It’s maybe a mile and some change from there.
yes i am worried
March 5th, 2012
8:15 pm
Maureen
Is there anyway you can block Good Mother’s comments? (I so don’t have a dog in this fight.) I think she has to be one of the nastiest people I have ever read on blogs.
Just wondering.
Agree with Yes I am Worried
March 5th, 2012
8:35 pm
I agree. GM has stated that her kids are going to private school. If you’ve left the public schools, please leave the conversation. If you choose to participate, at least make constructive comments.
Enough Already
March 5th, 2012
8:42 pm
@GM
Reading is fundamental! Not once did I say I want you to send your kids SOD. I said, “MOVE to the suburbs.” It’s evident you cannot afford private school because if you could you wouldn’t be wasting your time on the blogs screaming louder than everyone else.
You are not the “great white hope.” SOD doesn’t need you to save them. Get off your raggedy pedestal and tend to your kids. I’m sure they want to spend some quality time with their “good mother.”
Lastly, I don’t live SOD.
Good night.
Enough Already
March 5th, 2012
8:45 pm
Correction. @Enougher already not GM. You all sound the same.
To Toomer Parent
March 5th, 2012
8:46 pm
TP you write “The Inman 6th grade academy proposal taking over the Coan MS building is a gerrymandered mess serving the interests of Candler Park and Candler Park only….”
Candler Park is not served by this gerrymandered mess. CP doesn’t want it. I also doesn’t disserve CP only. It’s all of the Lin communities of Lake Claire, Inman Park and Candler Park who might be zoned for Coan as a 6th academy…but….no one at Lin wants that Coan option. We didn’t ask for it and we don’t want it. It came out of nowhere. We want to stay north of Dekalb avenue….even if it means parking our kids in a trailer. Please fight to keep Coan in your cluster because the three hoods of CP, LC and IP, sure don’t want Coan.
GM
Teacher2
March 5th, 2012
8:54 pm
@yes i am worried
Many people on this blog have asked that same question.
Shirley U Jest
March 5th, 2012
8:55 pm
All Kirkwood wanted was to keep the neighborhood together…and now they have their wish. Perhaps all that talk of standing strong to change the quality of Coan was exactly what the APS appreciated and desired…except at a different middle school. Bet in hindsight that that neighborhood split wasn’t so bad after all. Be careful what you wish for.
To Agree with....
March 5th, 2012
9:02 pm
Agree with you wrote “If you’ve left the public schools, please leave the conversation.”
Whether or not my children go to school here, I am a property owner and have a dog in this fight. If you don’t like the conversation, please don’t read it. I always sign my posts as Gm or good mother or good ma. Just scroll down to see the signature.
As far as you requirming me to say something constructive, OK, here goes something constructive….
Take to the streets in protest. There is enough money for all of our schools and it is being wasted by a bloated, corrupt school board. Exercise your rights and grab your picket signs and demand change. Flock to charter schools. Demand APS break up into smaller more manageable, more accountable districts.
How’s that?
GM
Don't Feed the Good Mother Troll
March 5th, 2012
9:31 pm
This blogger is a troll. Loves to cyberbait the teachers reading this. No matter what the topic, he/she will have an experience relevant to it. In several blogs back abt. the new DeKalb superintendent and the DeKalb SPLOST, GM wrote endlessly abt. his/her bad experiences with DeKalb schools. Here, it’s the APS schools. On blogs abt. charter schools, he/she has kids going to charters. Several months ago, wrote sob stories about his/her present poverty. Now it’s private school for the kids. Needs the attention….don’t feed.
Wondering Allowed
March 5th, 2012
9:58 pm
Mr. Davis – Shame on you. Shame on you. Clearing our neighborhood school of all the “undesirables” so that it’s lily clean enough for those in the “better” neighborhoods to send their kids here.
And, by the way, it would have been nice if at tonight’s meeting, you at least acted like you were listening to the speakers, instead of chatting with the man next to you, reading papers, rubbing your eyes and playing with your shoe.
Mr. Davis, had people not fought against this type of discrimination, you wouldn’t be an Acting Superintendent of Schools, you’d be a janitor at a segregated school, if you were lucky. Many years ago, thoughtful, intelligent people recognized the errors of that type of thinking. It’s unbelievable to see that you somehow missed that message.
Even South Africa abolished Apartheid years ago. I guess APS is the last bastion of this type of thinking. Again, Mr. Davis, you should be very ashamed. Your actions are disgusting.
Wondering Allowed
March 5th, 2012
10:06 pm
Oh, and let me point out, at tonight’s meeting, there was no outcry from the Inman parents about their kids crossing the railroad tracks now that the undesirables were being tossed from Coan. There was one very tepid suggestion made from a woman who was verbally Frenching the board that the only thing she could suggest to improve on the wonderful work she felt the board did was to use Howard instead of Coan for the sixth graders.
It’s as though the dangerous railroad tracks that were a huge issue last week disappeared now that Uncle Tom Davis took care of the real problem.
Thank You APS!
March 5th, 2012
10:33 pm
@GM -
I know my North of Dekalb Ave neighbors don’t want to attend Coan MS, that’s why those neighborhoods organized and fought like hell to keep their zone relatively intact. I’m also fully aware of the correlation between household income and student performance, so there’s nothing new on the table there. Could not an alternative solution to overcrowding at Inman MS would be have Mary Lin feed into Coan? They are roughly a mile apart as opposed to the two mile difference between Mary Lin and Inman.
Squeaky Wheel Gets the Grease
March 5th, 2012
10:36 pm
@ Positive – you are right… this is a better story.
It is interesting to me that NOT ONE of the five new positions under Karen Waldon were filled with people in APS. There are some honest, smart, dedicated folks in the district who should be given a second look (especially considering we’re already paying for their administrative salaries) instead of bringing in from Newton, Fulton, DeKalb, and Henry Co. This happened with an AP job earlier this year that wasn’t posted – hire from Cobb Co.
What happens when Davis leaves in a year? Will these people remain in these positions, or as I suspect, be replaced with Friends and Family members following the new Superintendent? I’m not sure I 100% trust people who are using this district as their stepping stones to something else in a year (or worse yet, padding their retirement accounts with the inflated salaries APS loves to pay).
I think everyone working for APS who is already an administrator should be worried about job security, and those who want to move up might need to look elsewhere. I know I am. It seems the only people who may actually be safe in all of this are the teachers.
Mike
March 5th, 2012
10:51 pm
@wondering ….. That kind of rhetoric is not appropriate. Please keep the race baiting out of this forum.
Wondering Allowed
March 5th, 2012
11:19 pm
@Mike – It’s race and economics. Are we supposed to act as though it isn’t? Or should we call it out for what it is? Nobody every cured cancer by ignoring the tumors. The truth is the truth, Mike. The affluent areas got all they wanted while the less affluent areas were broadsided with closures that had never been suggested before. The truth is the people who complained about crossing the tracks were silent tonight. The tracks didn’t disappear. the geography is the same. The only thing that changed is the removal of the local kids from the Coan classrooms.
The proposal put forth today is shameful. No African American speakers got up at tonight’s meeting and supported Mr. Davis. Are we to ignore that? Is my pointing that out race baiting? No. It’s the plan itself that was designed to race bait. Again, Mr. Davis should be very ashamed.
Mike
March 5th, 2012
11:34 pm
@wondering…Mr. Davis tried to help all groups I believe. You said that he didn’t help any black people but that is not true. O4W was helped significantly and it was mainly due to activism within the black community.
Coan had become such a mess there was little choice but to close it down. It was a cess pool. That cluster could not get it together. That is where your anger should be directed.
Please don’t make this racial. Nobody likes where that eventually leads us.
Squeaky Wheel Gets the Grease
March 5th, 2012
11:54 pm
@ Wondering – Davis is trying to keep those with options (private or City Schools of Decatur) in the district at the expense of those with fewer options (charter schools, many of which do not provide transportation to and from school). More students = more per pupil allotment from the state. Otherwise, in a few short years we’ll be right back to this point – tons of empty seats.
I’m not supporting this thinking, but it is the reality APS faces. That and a budget nightmare on the horizon due to the cheating scandal, Hall’s legal bills, and the lawsuits I’m sure are looming from students and teachers alike. At some point the district has to make a fiscally responsible decision or I guess go bankrupt!
Wondering Allowed
March 5th, 2012
11:54 pm
@Mike – Coan is in the midst of a turnaround that was just starting to show results. The Emory program, the Chinese classes and increased community involvement are to be thrown away so that the people at Mary Linn don’t have to attend classes with the kids who now go to Coan.
The community was taking the right steps. There is no doubt there. The district just ignored those facts in favor of pleasing the Inman people. That’s a fact. Don’t try to whitewash the truth.
Under what logic are we to be blamed for not fighting for something that had never been previously mentioned? Mr. Davis intentionally didn’t let word about Coan get out because he didn’t want community comment. He has lied to us. He has been deceitful. The fault belongs squarely at his feet, not at the feet of the people he deceived. He did not act honorably, truthfully or fairly.
And by the way, has anyone calculated how much all this busing will cost when gas reaches $6/gallon?
Wondering Allowed
March 5th, 2012
11:57 pm
@Squeaky Wheel – On what planet do you live that you think City of Decatur schools is an option for those on the east side of Atlanta? Even if they were accepting out of district students, the tuition is steep, there is no transportation to the schools (most people in our neighborhoods rely on public transportation) and there is no guaranty that a student who starts in Decatur will be able to attend the next year.
Squeaky Wheel Gets the Grease
March 6th, 2012
12:04 am
@ Wondering – When I mentioned CSD, I’m thinking of the Lin community, not those on the east side of Atlanta. Lin parents made it very clear that they would leave APS (private or Decatur) instead of going to Coan. Buckhead essentially did the same thing when the demographers started redrawing their lines. That’s why the demographers eventually stated to leave the schools in the North Atlanta cluster alone.
Davis knows some segments have greater means to leave APS than others, and he is bending to them. Charter schools aren’t an obvious answer for those stuck with longer commutes because many of them do not offer transportation.
I honestly think we agree, but my previous comment may not have been clear.
Marko
March 6th, 2012
5:18 am
Everyone will whine because their school is being shut down. The school board will cave. They will run out of money and need more but won’t be able to close schools, it’s easier to replace a superintendent than close schools. It plays out just about the same no matter the school system, no matter where in the county it is.
concerned
March 6th, 2012
6:26 am
To the parents? writers who are questioning the now current roll out of IB to other schools. IB has not been as widely accepted into colleges in the US and there was very little buy in from school districts to take on this with the overwhelming advantage that Advanced Placement/College Board had/has. It is a great curriculum but the tests are more expensive than AP and the diploma program is requires that students take on 8 college level classes, required outside of school activities and an extended research paper that is done outside of school. Comparisons between AP, where students can play to their strengths and choose to take the AP classes that they are motivated in, is different than the IB where being well rounded in all subjects is the expectation means that not every school would or should sign on to that. IB has grown its market share in the US recently and implementation of the IB and the feeder schools takes a fair amount of time and support from administration. That it is growing now is kudos to admins who are supportive of that rigor as opposed to focusing on the self congratulatory test scores. IB is not for everyone so it shouldn’t necessarily be at every school. College Board and IB do not make good bedfellows so it is better that school have a choice on which direction that college level focus should be, IB lower level schools allow for implementation of the IB philosophy but are not a requirement and are not necessarily better or worse than any of the other elementary and middle schools. The strength of a school starts with parents, teachers and admins and will flourish regardless. That IB was not available earlier has alot of to do with how IB was viewed in the US and the limited acceptablility for the IB scores at the college level. AP got you credit while equivalent scores in IB were not considered.That is slowly changing.
To Wondering Aloud
March 6th, 2012
6:35 am
WA you write “The truth is the people who complained about crossing the tracks were silent tonight.”
I am one that complained about crossing the tracks and I have been very vocal. I am sure you are aware of that fact.
We Nortf of Deklalbers didn’t get all that we wanted. We didn’t ask for Coan and we don’t want Coan, even when populated by all of we in the North of Dekalb neighborhoods. The objections are the same as before: dangerous traffic, crime-ridden neighborhood, dishonest teachers. All those things still haven’t changes, as you have noted. And our stance hasn’t change, which you won’t acknowledge.
No on Coan.
No way.
No how.
It’s that simple.
Either APS provides an alternative (even Errol mentioned Howard as one) or we won’t go.
So, fight for Coan, please. Make a big stink about it. March and protest how you want to keep your school, it just makes it easier for we North of Dekalbers. GM
yes i am worried
March 6th, 2012
6:48 am
Decatur isn’t taking tuition students next year at least for elementary school.
Wondering Allowed
March 6th, 2012
7:05 am
@Squeaky Wheel – Candler Park parents, by and large, do not have the means to send their kids to private school. Assuming two children, if the parents in Candler Park had that kind of money, they wouldn’t be living in Candler Park; they’d be living in Druid Hills or Decatur. Lake Claire, too. These are upper middle class neighborhoods.
According to 2009 figures on City-Data.com, the median household income in Candler Park is just $83k. That’s hardly enough to afford $45k to pay for private school for a couple kids. LC is higher, at $94k. While there may be some that could swing raising a family and paying for private school, that’s the extreme minority, not a significant majority.
While they might have the means to afford Decatur schools, Decatur doesn’t want them. The City of Decatur has enough children whose parents have chosen to live in Decatur.
Doris M.
March 6th, 2012
8:28 am
It’s always difficult to close neighborhood schools, but it must be done. Schools that are half full or less than half full need to be closed as its a drain on the taxpayer. While I would not like to see schools that are overcrowded, there is a happy medium in there somewhere.
Brit
March 6th, 2012
8:37 am
Yes, that is one of the reason we didn’t buy a house in CP. it would have been cheaper, but the place seems over-run with self-entitled bigots. I can’t think of anything worse than having to live next door to someone like GM.
Decatur City Schools are only allowing applications from tuition students for grade 6 and above this year, and really that just applies to the 150 already in the system. Most of them started in Kindergarten years ago, so the city is trying to let them finish their schooling in Decatur schools ( they have to reapply each year). There is no chance of anyone from the Lin community getting a place.
frustrated APS mom
March 6th, 2012
9:13 am
People will find creative ways to make things work. We are in Buckhead and we are one of those families that certainly can’t afford over $40k a year to send both of our kids to private school but we have decided that we can make it work for the oldest to go to private next year for middle school. It won’t be easy but we can do it. I suspect there are many like us. Middle school is the weak link around here so we will duck out for a few years and revisit the public school when we see how the new high school is doing. The young one is doing just fine in our elementary. I think this is the way it will be for this generation of kids. The parents can’t easily sell their houses and move around for school, so they will hobble along using a mix of public and private and figure it out as they go.
decaturparent
March 6th, 2012
9:18 am
To those who think City Schools of Decatur is an option. Sorry folks…. Decatur is full up. They can hardly handle the residents within the city. They just built a huge new school last year and will be opening another school next year most likely as several of its elementary schools still have trailers. Decatur is not taking tuition students in K-5 next year and gives no guarantees for middle and high school students from year to year. To rely on attending CSD is not a good idea.
Atlanta Mom
March 6th, 2012
10:36 am
Wondering Allowed
You said “Coan is in the midst of a turnaround that was just starting to show results. The Emory program, the Chinese classes and increased community involvement ”
And you can’t take that to your new school?
anon
March 6th, 2012
11:12 am
This MES family is relieved by the proposal, not happy with it. The mentions of K and 5/6 academies really worried us. That would be a deal-breaker for us and cause us to opt out of APS altogether. Objectively, adding transitions is bad for kids, and I believe it would be particularly bad for our shy kid. We’re unhappy with the 6th grade academy, too, and certainly with the location, but at least we get to use MES. We’ll head to private school after that. (I suspect that the percentage of families from MES and Va-HI who opt out after 5th grade is going to go way up.) This whole process (at least as it relates to the Grady cluster) has been driven by the fears and strident demands of a single neighborhood. If APS comes to its senses and creates a second middle school feeder for Grady before our oldest finishes 5th grade, we’ll be back. We are not worried about who feeds the school, so long as it is proximate to MES and of a reasonable size. Otherwise, we prefer the size and stability private schools offer. We’ll miss the diversity of an urban public school district, though. Truth be told, I’m quite jealous of the East Lake and Grant Park families that have access to neighborhood K-8 charter schools. Or maybe we’ll sell our MES-neighborhood house and move to City of Decatur, where we can buy a nice new construction house for substantially less than our house is worth. That sounds pretty enticing, but I suspect we’ll stay put as long as MES stays K-5 and we get into a good private school after that.
C Jae of EAV
March 6th, 2012
12:09 pm
So the proposal is to close a school designed to hold 900 kids so you can house a 6th grade academy that will serve about as many students as it currently serves (approx 300), which is already deemed under utilization of the property?? And in the process of the aforementioned you bus the former Coan kids 3 neighborhoods over across the interstate, through the thick of eastside rush hour traffic (on both surface streets & the highway) and into a building that will essentially be busting at the seems, as it will be at or near capacity as a result of the shift in students proposed! Sorry something in that equation doesn’t add up to me. Could not the old Walden Middle school property be used as overflow to house a the proposed Inman aux 6th grade academy instead of leveraging Coan for that purpose? Could the old Hope elementary building be used (which is currently being occupied by a charter school that was originally planning to use facilities at the old nursing school @ the Atlanta Medical Center). I say all that to say with all the property APS is sitting on? There are some options here…
Meanwhile across town because of mal-investment, you’re forced to maintain 3 high schools (Douglas, BEST Academy & CS King Academy) that are in a triangle 2 miles from each other, all essentially poaching the same dwindling population base. With BEST & CS KING supported by 2 elementary schools that split into 2 separate middle schools (as BEST & CS King are single gender academies). Huh? Clearly APS is struggling trying to make sence of the mess they have made from earlier facilities master plans on every side of town.
The redistricting effort is uncovering a truly a sad state of affairs. When you rise above the emotion of the circumstance you will find that APS has a glut of property holdings (inclusive of a lot of rotting vacent buildings closed in previous redistricting efforts) and has invested tens of millions into building / revenvating schools within the last 10 years that could have been better spent. The proposed move will add even more to the glut of property they’re sitting on and likely result in even more mal-investment in new construction.