Strength in Numbers: 11 APS Schools Work Together

Even though she didn't have a child enrolled at Toomer Elementary School until this year, Sally Alcock of Kirkwood has been involved as a volunteer at Toomer for about 10 years.

“I’m not the only one,” said Alcock Wednesday, at the Council of Intown Neighborhoods and Schools’ (CINS) first community meeting of the 2011-2012 school year. “There are a bunch of us who moved to Kirkwood years ago and decided we were going to help our local school because we love the neighborhood and wanted a strong school for our neighborhood.”

CINS, she said, “is extremely important to being able to build a stronger, better school. The amount of support that CINS gives to each school, to its principals, staff and students is invaluable.”

“Empowering schools . . . enhancing neighborhoods” is what CINS is all about. CINS is like a support group for these 11 schools, which share their joys, woes, resources, and best practices.

The CINS cluster is made up of Grady High School and the Atlanta Public Schools that feed into Grady. Those are three middle schools: Coan, and King, as well as these elementary schools: Centennial Place, Mary Lin, , East Lake, Hope-Hill, , and Toomer.

At Wednesday’s meeting hosted by and its principal Brian Mitchell, the central message was: We need you. Not just parents, but neighbors who care about their public schools enough to pitch in in some way.

There was little specific mention of the widespread cheating scandal that has plagued the city school district in the last year and that came to glaring light with the release in July of Gov. Nathan Deal’s 800-page report by independent investigators.

In a veiled mention of the scandal, one principal said that the start of the new school session “could have been terrible, but it has been fairly smooth, from all I’ve seen and heard.”

“Our school system is in a place of recovery right now,” said Betsy Bockman,  “We are not on life support; we are recovering. We are on the road to a healthy place.”

Bockman was Inman Middle’s principal for a number of years (and previously principal at Morningside), until recently promoted as area superintendent for these same schools in the CINS cluster plus others. (Bockman replaced Robin Hall, who was removed from her post in the wake of the cheating scandal).

Wednesday’s gathering was mostly a chance to get a quick “we’re off to a new year” update, live and in person, from each of the 11 principals in the CINS cluster.

Vincent Murray, longtime principal of , laced his comments with things to brag about and things that are cause for concern. Bragging rights: Students who graduated in 2011 were offered about $20 million in scholarship money, compared to about $11 million offered to Grady’s 2010 graduates. Also: Through a student writing center funded by donations, students now regularly get one-on-one assistance.

A drawback at Grady: The school that borders Piedmont Park currently has 1,524 students, compared to 1,432 one year ago — and one year ago was already seriously overcrowded. (The Grady campus was expanded several years ago to accommodate about 1,200 students. In 2005, there were 996 enrolled, compared to 1,146 in 2006 and 1,264 by 2009).

“It’s become a very big challenge for us,” Murray said. “We have 10 instructional suites. You would know them as trailers.”

Murray and other principals mentioned staffing shortages here and there, such as a technology instructor and a science/math teacher still needed at Grady. Brian Mitchell, at Mary Lin, said he got a phone call yesterday that made him confident he will get a music teacher soon to replace Lin’s longtime music teacher who recently moved away.

A number of principals mentioned overcrowded classrooms, a result of recent budget cuts. At Coan Middle, for example, classes that used to have 15 students now have 25 to 30.

But there were plenty of items that earned applause. For example, Yolonda Brown, principal at Springdale Park Elementary, announced to everyone that her school, just three years old, now has a parking lot. "It's true!" she said. "Now you can actually park at our school."

Coan’s interim principal Leah Goodwin talked about a new advisory program through which students are encouraged to “talk more freely about themselves, their school, and their home life. We all know middle school kids are kind of crazy,” she said. “They definitely need more opportunities to talk.”

Goodwin, along with East Lake Elementary principal Mary Benton, were among a number of CINS principals who said that more parent and community involvement and support are greatly needed.

Paula Herrema, interim principal at Inman Middle, was among a number of principals who said her school is focusing in part this year on team-building, and on math and technology.

“We are concentrating on how our classrooms can reflect what’s going on in the real world today,” she said.

Cassandra Ashley, principal at Hope-Hill (not Hill-Hope, she said), was among principals to boast about the success of the school’s new iPad Lab.

CINS relies on donations (tax-deductible) in order to provide scholarships to teachers in all 11 intown schools.  Every dollar donated goes directly toward scholarships. Teachers awarded CINS funds typically receive between $500 and $1,200 for a specific project or need. A recent example: a staffer at Springdale Park Elementary recently received CINS funds for an anti-bullying campaign that starred a frog character. Another: a teacher at Morningside Elementary tackled “Incubating Duck and Quail Eggs,” thanks to a CINS grant.

“We are focused on every child in the Grady cluster being a successful student,” said Abby Martin, current co-president of CINS, along with Doug Wood.

Alicia McGill, who has two children at Mary Lin, showed up for the CINS forum because she is determined to become more involved.

“Each and every one of us has got to do a better job,” said McGill, who lives in Lake Claire. The cheating debacle, she said, “has taken focus away from other issues such as redistricting and student-teacher ratio. I want APS to become transparent and I want to see more of us really working together. Today’s meeting has been great because it’s all about being connected.”

Michael McKnight, interim principal at Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School in Grant Park, stepped up with great gusto to address the CINS audience.

“We are reclaiming the dream at King, and I’m excited to be part of it. Please stop by and see us and become a part of it. Don’t just think about King Middle. Come by and do something.”

The next CINS community meeting will be Oct. 12 at 7 p.m. at Toomer Elementary. For more information, to donate or become a member, visit the CINS website.