Wednesday, April 10, 2013
Atlanta Public Schools has released a list of projects that will affect schools in the 2013-2014 school year.
Mary Lin Elementary School and Springdale Park Elementary School will be undergoing renovations in the 2013-2014 school year while students continue to hold classes in the building, according to an APS announcement. The TalkUp APS blog has posted a list of schools that will have renovation and construction work done during the coming school year. According to the list, Mary Lin and Springdale Park "will undergo a phased renovation while students and staff remain on site." For the complete list of 2013-2014 Construction and Renovation Projects, see the attached document.
Friday, March 8, 2013
Grady senior writes that "late or not, anyone could bring a gun to school if they wanted and still can."
By Olivia Veira APS has a million dollar question in its lap that it can’t afford to answer: how do you make schools more secure? Just a few days before a Grady High School student shot herself in the leg, Grady began one of the most intensive security protocols that I have seen in my four years at Grady. We had to take our bags off, shed our electronics and walk through metal detectors while teachers half-heartedly patted our bags. But, no system is perfect. And this one certainly had its loopholes. For example, I, and every student with classes in the gym or the trailers, could walk straight to my gym class, unchecked. In fact, I had gym with Morgan Tukes on Feb. 27. Grady’s security is, just as it was, a farce. Superintendent Errol B. …
Tuesday, March 5, 2013
The Atlanta Board of Education has approved calendars for traditional and year round schools.
The Atlanta Board of Education voted Monday to approved calendars for traditional and year round schools that vary only slightly from the current school year calendar, according to the Atlanta Public Schools website. Two APS elementary school teachers, who asked not to be named, thought the new schedule wouldn't change much from their standpoint, but hope it will be well received by parents. Some of the obvious changes include moving the first day of class. Instead of students returning on August 6, which was the first Monday in August in 2012, the coming year's start date will be Wednesday, August 7. Winter break stays the same from December 20 until January 7th, and Spring Break is still the second week in April. The only other …
Monday, March 4, 2013
Final approval of the calendar for the next two school years is expected. School safety could also come up.
The Atlanta Board of Education will meet Monday and is expected to adopt a new calendar for the 2013-14 and 2014-15 school years. The Live Blog of a mid-January meeting included the Superintendent's Report on the calendar issue: Changes from past calendars include the consolidation of all schools to a single calendar as well as changes to the scheduling of some staff work days. For 2013-14 and 2014-15, the superintendent’s proposal provides flexibility to principals and supervisors in the scheduling of one (1) teacher work day and in the scheduling of 200-day and 220-day staff members (e.g. counselors, social workers, assistant principals) outside of the teacher work year. This will allow schools to tailor their staff schedules to best …
Friday, March 1, 2013
APS director of security says during Thursday's community meeting at Grady that the timetable on responding, evaluating and resolving problems related to school security and safety was immediate and ongoing.
Editor's Note: After a Grady High School senior brought a gun to school Wednesday and accidentally shot herself in the leg in the courtyard, Atlanta Public Schools’ officials called a community meeting at the school Thursday night to discuss the incident. Here is coverage from a Midtown Grady parent including the transcript of a live blog from the event. The APS Twitter account @apsupdate was also live tweeting from the event. APS administrators praised Grady High School for immediate response to the crisis situation on Wednesday, while acknowledging gaps in current security procedures. While there seemed to be a great effort toward transparency and cooperation to make sure our children are safe at APS schools, many questions about the …
Thursday, February 28, 2013
Parents' concerns over campus security escalated following Wednesday’s incident when a student brought a gun to school and accidentally shot herself in the thigh.
After a Grady High School senior brought a gun to school Wednesday and accidentally shot herself in the leg in the courtyard, Atlanta Public Schools’ officials have called a community meeting at the school Thursday night to discuss the incident. And it is expected that the tempers of some parents could be hot, just as they were Wednesday as parents milled around outside the school waiting to bring their children home. One parent, who asked not to be identified, said to Patch, “I’ve been fed up with APS for 10 years … We should be able to send a child to school within our neighborhood where we live amongst civilized human beings without fear of a gun.” The 17-year-old girl who brought the weapon — a pink .380-caliber handgun — on campus, …
Thursday, February 7, 2013
Atlanta Public Schools’ Superintendent Erroll B. Davis is expected to attend and discuss middle school capacity issues.
At the start of the school year, Atlanta Public Schools Superintendent Erroll B. Davis Jr. delivered a state-of-the-district address that outlined the challenges and work the system faced. Now, school principals will hold their own forums to provide an update on the state of the schools in each cluster. APS leaders in the East cluster will discuss the academic offerings in the schools and answer questions at a Feb. 7 meeting scheduled for 6:30 p.m. at Grady High School. One of the hot topics among parents in East Atlanta Patch, is the status of a sixth grade academy to relieve overcrowding at Inman Middle School. Inman pulls students from Mary Lin Elementary in Candler Park and Hope-Hill Elementary in Old Fourth Ward, as well as schools in…
Tuesday, February 5, 2013
On Tuesday evening APS parents are invited to meet and discuss Atlanta's Public Schools with city representatives.
Do you want to be more involved with your children's education or with school safety decisions? If so, you should make it out to the 2nd Annual Parents for Atlanta's Public Schools Legislative Reception on Tuesday evening. This reception will be held at Atlanta Public Schools, Center for Learning and Leadership, 130 Trinity Avenue, Atlanta, Georgia 30303. All parents and community members in Atlanta who support public education in Atlanta's public schools are invited to attend the "2nd Annual Parents for Atlanta's Public Schools Legislative Reception" on Tuesday, February 5, 2013 from 7:00 to 8:30 pm. Specially invited guests include the state elected officials in the Atlanta-Fulton County Delegation, our city's elected officials and the…
Friday, January 18, 2013
Earlier elementary school start could have 800 of the district's youngest students being picked up by the bus before 6:50 a.m., but APS says advantages of changes, including cost savings and improved ride times for special needs students, are numerous.
The third notable item with relation to Midtown and the Grady cluster to come from this week’s Atlanta Board of Education meeting was discussion surrounding a potential adjustment of transportation schedules and school day start and end times for all Atlanta Public Schools’ elementary, middle and high schools, beginning in the 2013-2014 school year. What Are Your Thoughts On The Proposed New APS Bell Schedule? Join in the conversation. As Midtown Patch reported from last week’s APS safety and transportation meeting at Grady High School, APS Director of Transportation John Lyles presented a plan for "Detailed Current vs. Proposed Bell Schedules." Wrote Midtown parent Sherri Caldwell last week: Lyles outlined the disadvantages of the …
Thursday, January 17, 2013
Leslie Grant, member of the Jackson High Local School Council and Southeast Atlanta schools advocate, is running for the district, which includes Poncey-Highland.
Leslie Grant, mother of two and member of the local school council at Jackson High School, is running for the Atlanta Public Schools Board District 1 seat. The new district boundaries include the Poncey-Highland area. The seat is currently held by Brenda J. Muhammad. Grant, who filed papers to run on Tuesday, said she believes it's time for "transformational leadership" on the board. That became apparent, she said, following the redrawing of school attendance zones last year, which resulted in the closure of seven schools. "Redistricting changed a lot," she told Patch. It changed the way people perceived what was going on. And it just seemed to bring a lot of people out and made them energized about being interested in fixing their …
Barbara Baggerman
2:52 pm on Saturday, March 30, 2013
Chris, do you have a link for that article about Jackson High? I went to the East Atlanta Patch and searched for "Jackson High", and it did not come up. Thanks. more ›