APS Redistricting: Demographers Recommend Kindergarten Center

Demographers hired by Atlanta Public Schools released the final redistricting recommendation to the district this week.

The recommendation for SRT3 and the Grady High School cluster includes creating a kindergarten center to serve , and to address overcrowding at the elementary schools.

The demographers also suggested a grade six center to provide the cluster more middle school seats.

More from the demographers:

Expand Springdale Park or create a kindergarten center that would serve Springdale Park, Mary Lin and Morningside. Close East Lake Elementary and merge with Toomer. Merge Hill Hope and Cook, reserving the final decision on which facility to keep open after considering other factors not addressed in the scope of this study.  Keep both Whitefoord and Burgess Peterson open for 3 years to ensure that utilization of these schools doesn’t rise too fast due to the large preschool bubble entering those schools. In the event that the additional capacity is not needed, Whitefoord could eventually be merged into Burgess-Peterson.

Build a 6th grade center for SRT 3 using a new site or retrofitting a current APS owned facility (a 6th grade center must have a minimum 500-student capacity). This action would allow Centennial Place to remain in the SRT 3/Grady Cluster. Our preliminary analysis also indicates that the alternative of developing a 5-6 grade center at a suitable location within SRT 3 could simultaneously resolve elementary and middle school overcrowding at , Springdale Park, Morningside and Mary Lin. Absent of building a 5-6 grade center, the above recommendations do not provide capacity to absorb forecasted enrollment growth at Springdale Park. APS should continue to study alternatives to expand SPARK or explore other options if on-site expansion is not feasible from a cost or engineering perspective.

Read the full recommendation on Talk Up APS.