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
Tell us what you think about the site
Customer Care »
Vacation stops, manage subscriptions and more
AJC Services
Sections
Other Editions
Visitor Agreement | Privacy Statement
© 2013 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
130 comments Add your comment
Response to Anon
March 6th, 2012
12:44 pm
@Anon – if you don’t like transitions forget Decatur schools. They have a grade configuration similar to what APS is considering. They have K-3 and then a 4/5 school… and then on to middle school. I have a friend who has kids there and says it’s really chaotic having the kids switch schools to frequently.
FYI
March 6th, 2012
12:50 pm
@ Good Mother. On this blog on Mar. 5, 7:55 pm and Mar. 6, 6:55 am, you refer to “we Northern DeKalbers,” and also mention that next year your children are going to a private school. Yet on the Aug. 17, 2011 blog, “Building a Foundation: Beverly Hall and APS Cheating” you wrote:
To Really Amazed from Good Mother, August 18th, 2011, 11:07 am: “Really Amazed writes “I still can’t understand why parents are willing to subject their child to this type of education. There are far too many other options for all!!!!” I’m really amazed, Really Amazed, that you think we have far too many other options. Let’ see, a private education, not even in my reach. Move? Sure, it’s so easy to sell and profit off of an underwater house. I can’t help it the economy and housing market took a nose dive. I also have to work. No stay at home mom stuff for me. That means I have to live within a reasonable commuting distance to my office or I won’t be raising the very children I brought into the world.”
Do you live in the APS district, or in Northern DeKalb? How can you afford private school? And HOW can you blog continuously during the day if you work in an office and are not a stay-home mom?
As Shakespeare wrote: Something’s rotten in the state of Denmark.
Brit
March 6th, 2012
12:52 pm
@anon if you object to 5/6 academies you certainly shouldn’t move to Decatur, where all the kids feed into a 4/5 academy and have done for years. It works very well but is obviously a ‘deal-breaker’ for you.
anon
March 6th, 2012
1:28 pm
I know Decatur schools have that configuration. That’s why we decided against Decatur in the first place. We really liked it otherwise, and the home prices are fantastic. I would consider Decatur for post-5th grade, but, as I said, if we had lost a k-5 option in MES, we would have gone straight to . a private K-12. What’s lost in all this is that a lot of people around here aren’t that thrilled with Inman as it is. A lot of people are on the fence. Any change that makes Inman less desirable will push more people who have options into private schools or to Cobb/Decatur. That may be what APS wants, but it will have an impact on Inman/Grady.
Another FYI re GM
March 6th, 2012
1:36 pm
And I’m tired of hearing about GM’s alleged payment of tuition for her kids to attend private school next year. I’m knee-deep in it right now, and I can assure you that the private school application process in the Atlanta area is quite regimented. Just about all Atlanta-area private schools belong to the Atlanta Area Association of Independent Schools (every private school I’ve ever heard of is a member of AAAIS), and all AAAIS-member schools must adhere to the same calendar for the admissions process. Letters of acceptance for the 2012-2013 school year do not go out until April 6th. Hhhmmm.
Concerned
March 6th, 2012
3:27 pm
With 42% utilization and a 59 on the cheating scandal which is flagged as severe concern – why is whitefoord staying open?
Dekalbite
March 6th, 2012
4:49 pm
Probably no APS parents want to hear this, but if you take a look at the expenditure on non teaching personnel in APS, you will see how far out of line they are with respect to the rest of the metro area and indeed the entire state of Georgia. Look at the webpage link below.
http://archives.gadoe.org/ReportingFW.aspx?PageReq=102&CountyId=761&T=1&FY=2011
Your Teacher to Staff (non teaching certified personnel) ratio is 5:1. That means for every 6 employees certified to teach in APS, 1 does not teach students. You spend $44,000,000 on Administrators and $23,000,000 on Support. Your employees that are certified to teach but never teach a child consume $67,000,000 a year of tax dollars. Teachers cost you $218,000,000. 24% of your personnel cost for certified employees is for employees who never teach a child. These non teaching employees who are certified to teach cost around $1,400 per pupil a year.
I’m all for consolidating and closing schools if that makes sense for students. But it seems to me that getting a handle on admin and support cost should be the FIRST consideration. That seems to be the last ditch effort AFTER as many students are crammed into a class as possible and as many schools are closed as the BOE finds politically feasible. Increasing class sizes and closing neighborhood schools should be done ONLY after non teaching personnel are cut, consolidated and outsourced as much as possible.
Just reducing your non teaching certified personnel by 10% would save almost $7,000,000. Exactly how much is going to be saved by closing these 13 schools?
Every cost saving decision in this recession seems to entail impacting students while preserving adult jobs. Students always see to be the last consideration.
Atlanta Mom
March 6th, 2012
5:57 pm
anon,
You might be surprised at just how resilient your children are. My experience is that the parents have a lot more trouble with “transitions” than their students do.
Atlanta Mom
March 6th, 2012
6:00 pm
As for GM, seems I’ve heard her/him bemoan the hour drive to/from school. And how she taught them in the car while she was driving, and by the time she got home she only had time to feed, bath and send them to bed.
So, I was surprised when she talked about living in town. Most of us don’t travel an hour to work.
Wondering Allowed
March 6th, 2012
6:00 pm
@Atlanta Mom – The foundations and organizations that have made contributions of time, effort and money at Coan have indicated they are not inclined to move. That’s out of our hands. The community, as opposed to the parents, will not be interested in investing time and effort in a school on the other side of town. It’s one thing to work within the community. It’s another thing to work in someone else’s community.
Also, the East Atlanta neighborhoods will lose many of the families with school aged children. Who would want to commit to a neighborhood where the kids spend hours and hours each week commuting to a school that is across town? The new families needed to join in the effort won’t be moving into the neighborhood.
While this might be palpable if it Coan were closing, the idea that kids from another neighborhood will be bused in to get what is likely a superior educational experience is the real crime. Why would anybody in the neighborhood want to invest time or energy in an organization that treats us like lessers?
Seriously, if APS told you they were going to use your local school for kids from a more affluent neighborhood, but your kids are being cleared out to make room for the other kids, you’d go ballistic, too. You have to wonder what is going through Davis’ head. How can he possibly think this is acceptable? Why is he wasting resources on the inevitable court case that will clearly show him it’s not acceptable? If he thinks this is acceptable, perhaps he should offer to reimburse APS for any legal fees incurred should a court rule otherwise!
Atlanta Mom
March 6th, 2012
6:10 pm
Wondering Allowed,
It is outlandish that Coan would be closed for the neighborhood so other neighborhoods can bus their children in.
How much farther is the new school-both miles and time? Thanks
To Atlanta Mom
March 6th, 2012
6:15 pm
You wrote “So, I was surprised when she talked about living in town. Most of us don’t travel an hour to work.”
…but I do. Why is that so hard to believe? Metro Atlanta is huge. I live intown and have to commute south of the city.
….but that’s not your point, is it? You just want to discredit me in any way you can.
Well, go for it. I don’t mind.
GM
To FYI
March 6th, 2012
6:19 pm
Do you live in the APS district, or in Northern DeKalb?
I live n the APS district North of Dekalb avenue.
How can you afford private school?
It’s parochial. The church kicks in part.
And HOW can you blog continuously during the day if you work in an office and are not a stay-home mom?
A laptop is a wonderful thing.
GM
Atl Parent
March 6th, 2012
6:24 pm
I understand why Kirkwood residents are angry. I would be too were I in their position: none of the previous six proposals had mentioned the possibility of closing Coan. It seemed to come from out of the blue.
That said, the school is not being closed so that Kirkwood’s northern neighbors can use it as a sixth grade academy. Indeed, I’m pretty sure that will never happen, given the reasonable objections that Morningside and VaHi are already voicing. (Oh, and just to be clear, there is a need for a sixth grade academy because O4W is–correctly–being brought into the Inman/Grady cluster…a move that *increases* economic and racial diversity in a cluster that is already diverse).
Coan is closing because it is dramatically under capacity. Should it be? I don’t know. But if it does close it is *not*–as Davis clearly said–so that it can be used as a 6th grade academy.
bu2
March 6th, 2012
6:58 pm
If Inman is 51% African American, it seems like adding O4W would decrease racial diversity.
There’s a big misperception that the northern schools are all white when they are the only diverse schools in Atlanta or Dekalb.
Wait and see
March 6th, 2012
9:11 pm
@bu2, shhh….nobody wants to hear the truth. The truth is inconvenient to their feelings of moral superiority and self-righteousness.
tjatl
March 7th, 2012
12:12 am
The reason you haven’t heard much from people north of Dekalb (besides GM) about using Coan as a 6th grade academy site for the Grady cluster is that we’re all still trying to process this. Totally out of left field. Makes sense in a facilities utilization sort of way I suppose, but the logistical issues still remain. And on top of that, it “squats” in another neighborhood.
It is not easy to cross the tracks at congested hours of the day (and yes, I’m talking cars) unless you’re on the far eastern portion of Candler Park and Lake Claire, and even then there are only a couple of crossings. I fully expect those south of DeKalb to flame me on that, but it’s just true. Yes, I go to Target, but not every day and not during rush hour. It wasn’t easy to get to Jackson HS for the last SRT-3 public meeting (Krog St tunnel was backed up).
I don’t think anyone north of the tracks has any desire to “take” Edgewood/Kirkwood’s school building.
Bottom line is there are too many school buildings south of the tracks for the number of children in the area. APS has seen this coming since the’90s, when Atlanta Housing Authority changed their model and began demolishing housing projects. Which is peculiar, because at the same time they sold off schools in the areas that now need the capacity (Bass High School comes to mind). Were they that out of step with the census? – yes, they were. Because until now they did their redistricting the year prior to census release. Would not want to ascribe ulterior motives, though it is very tempting.
JC
March 7th, 2012
6:31 am
I am still under the impression that Coan was going to be used to hold the Jackson High students while Jackson was under construction. Does anybody have an update on where those students will be relocated if it is not Coan?
I also thought that the Coan students were moving to another school (MLK) where both student bodies eventually feed into the same highschool, Jackson. Was Coan originally a feeder for Grady?
Private School
March 7th, 2012
7:49 am
DR.HALL AND HER CREW LEFT APS IN A BAD SITUATION!!!!!!!!!!!!!
NAACP to APS: Please reconsider school closings | Get Schooled
March 7th, 2012
2:51 pm
[...] NAACP has concerns about the proposal from Superintendent Erroll Davis to close 13 APS schools. Here is a memo the civil rights group sent to the system expressing those concerns: FROM: The [...]
vh3
March 7th, 2012
11:35 pm
Folks around Coan, please understand that those of us at Inman never advocated to take over your school! That plan was totally out of the blue, and we really dislike it!
If the Mary Lin community wasn’t working so hard behind the scenes via the ex-Inman principal (now SRT-3 exec. dir.) to get their way and stay at Inman, none of this would be necessary. ALL these neighborhoods are being harmed just so ML can stay at Inman. Thanks ML for dragging down most of the NE section of Atlanta. Hope you are all happy at all the chaos you and your protector (Bockman) have wrought.
tjatl
March 8th, 2012
8:49 am
@vh3 – the Mary Lin community could say the same about Morningside and/or Centennial (in various plans they were proposed to go to a brand new middle school in Buckhead).
But we don’t and we haven’t. Because we’re not like that.
Mary Lin doesn’t like this Coan thing one bit, either. No one at ML saw this coming.
There is just not enough middle school space for the Grady cluster. There is $30 million in SPLOST for a new “Midtown Middle School”. That money should be used to put the seats they KNOW have been needed in the Grady cluster for at least a decade. Why could you not advocate for that rather than focus your narrow efforts on who you want to kick off the Inman island?
vh3
March 8th, 2012
9:27 am
@tjatl – You are “like that”. You have advocated non-stop to keep ML in the Inman/Grady zone, thereby effecting all the other neighborhoods to your north for the negative. Lots of us are sick and tired of being told that we have to advocate for the Grady cluster to remain together, when all that really does is harm our kids. You have fought hard to keep your kids from going to Coan (unless of course you drag all of us down with you – then you are ok with it).
It’s time for us to fight to keep our kids at Inman, from 6-8 grade. We should have been fighting harder this whole time. It reeks of inside dealings (i.e., Bockman) that you are the one and only school (outside of spark who’s zone covers both Inman and Grady) who has never, in any plan, been rezoned. If ML goes to Coan, the problems across the cluster are essentially solved, with no money spent. It makes complete sense and is geographically feasible. If you didn’t have an inside track, this could already be a done deal and hundreds of other families would not have to be shifting across the district.
Yes, other, more prudent decisions should have been made in the past, but this is where we are now, and moving ML to Coan makes a whole lot of sense.
tjatl
March 8th, 2012
12:16 pm
@vh3 – there is no “inside track”, as you fantasize, sorry.
Why is anyone at Inman more “entitled” to stay there than any other? Piedmont Heights, Sherwood Forest and the north part of Morningside are just as far from the school as the farthest reaches of Inman Park and Candler Park.
There is currently not enough middle school seats to fill Grady without split feeders. You can’t have a coherent cluster that doesn’t have enough middle school seats. You’re saying it’s OK and even desirable for part of the Grady students to go “squat” in a different cluster for 3 years during middle school as a permanent solution.
People at Mary Lin are likewise sick and tired of being told by a vocal narrow minded few that we are crowding “your” middle school and should just “see the light” and go somewhere else.
vh3
March 8th, 2012
1:02 pm
No, I’m actually saying that ML should be zoned to Coan, and then Jackson – not come back to Grady.
And yes, Bockman is clearly fighting for what is best for her personally, and clearly has Supt. Davis’s ear – she lives in the Lin district. She should have recused herself from this altogether, but to date, allegedly has not.
You decided to live on the far edge of the district. Did you really think redistricting would never happen? And there is a perfectly good middle school right near you. There isn’t an available space for the folks further north to go to without enormous construction costs.
And there are a lot more than “a few” who agree with this position.
Why is it always ok for you to fight for your kids, but when those north of you fight for what is best for theirs, your constant response is to call us “narrow minded”? We are simply looking at the map and proposing what is most logical and cost effective.
tjatl
March 8th, 2012
1:28 pm
I say narrow minded because no one on this end was trying to tell Morningside, Centennial or anyone else on the “fringe” where they should go (particularly if it involved leaving the schools they occupy). We simply say BUILD MORE SEATS. There is currently ONE middle school of approximately 800 seats feeding into Grady. That’s not nearly enough to fill Grady. Who else do you propose attends Grady then? Transfers?
vh3
March 8th, 2012
1:54 pm
Although you all had no problem telling KW where to go, but that’s another argument…..
By insisting so vehemently that you stay in the Inman/Grady zone, you effectively forced multiple neighborhoods to endure negative changes, all on your behalf. The constant ML refrain has been “You all must feel so sorry for us, and none of you could possibly suggest we go to school south of Dekalb. You all must support us and prop us up.” The end result – dragging many other neighborhoods out of their neighborhood schools – is the same as if you’d issued a statement saying as much.
And I suspect that MES, Spark, HH, Centennial, and everyone else the Supt. is adding in – with the projected growth – could fill Grady quite comfortably.
tjatl
March 8th, 2012
2:20 pm
Um, no – Hope-Hill and Centennial already go to Grady. And Hope-Hill will now be going to Inman as well (as opposed to King) whether you get Mary Lin kicked out or not. So either way, there will be no one coming to Grady from a different middle school unless they transfer in.
And no, we did not tell KW where to go. They were all about telling US where to go (sorta like you).
vh3
March 8th, 2012
3:54 pm
If that many people are telling you where to go – maybe you should listen and go there.
tjatl
March 8th, 2012
4:09 pm
Perhaps we actually need a kindergarten annex – for the parents. Some need a refresher.