Schools

Overcrowded Grady to get Portable Classrooms

Portables will go up at the school around spring break, school officials say

is overcrowded.

The capacity of the school is 1,326 students, but enrollment for the 2010-2011 school year was 1,471 students, said Atlanta Public Schools spokesman Keith Bromery.

"I don't believe our enrollment is going to decline," Principal Vincent Murray said at a recent meeting with parents. 

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Students from surrounding Metro Atlanta neighborhoods including Virginia Highland, Morningside, Lenox Park, and parts of Druid Hills attend Grady.

"I wonder about safety," Murray said, when he watches students during class breaks. The stairwells crowd with kids, especially around what Murray called the "Little Five Points" area on the first floor.

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"I don't think we can wait" on renovations, Murray told parents as he announced that the school would install five portable classrooms on the lawn.

The portable classrooms will be placed on the current practice field at Charles Allen Drive and 10th Street, Bromery said. The goal is to have them up around spring break, he said. 

"Keep in mind that these are portable buildings, not trailers," Bromery said. "They have all the amenities of regular classroom structures, including HVAC systems, plumbing and electrical and IT infrastructures."

Parents at the meeting seemed supportive of the idea.

"We are a victim of our success," said Anne McGlamry, parent of a Grady student and former chair of the Grady Foundation. 

Parents like McGlamry see the crowded halls as a testament to the school's performance.

"Grady High School is on many parents' and students' 'A' list as the school to attend for a number of reasons, including academics and extracurricular activities," Bromery said. 

But how will Grady accommodate future growth?

"Where are we going to grow?" Murray said. "Grady is landlocked."

In 2004, more than $30 million was spent to renovate and expand the Grady campus, Bromery said. 

"No more renovations are planned," he said. "The school's structural footprint are at the limits of the land available under its current architectural configuration."

He said the best way to relieve overcrowding would be to rezone school attendance areas. "Rezoning is the best foreseeable option," Bromery said. 

A new high school could, in two years, help ease overcrowding at Grady. The school should be built in 2013, Bromery said, "provided the land can be purchased and all the permits acquired in a timely fashion."

The school will replace North Atlanta High School in Buckhead, which is being transformed into a middle school.


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