Wednesday, May 22, 2013
While the Board of Education struggles to balance its budget and debates class sizes, Atlanta Public Schools' students celebrate as Wednesday marks the last day of school.
Wednesday marks the final day of the 2012-13 school year for Atlanta Public Schools, but for the APS board, the work is far from done concerning passing a $568 million budget by the end of the month for preliminary approval. The Atlanta Board of Education Budget Commission met on Monday to review the proposed budget for fiscal year 2014 and considered three teacher furlough days, eliminating a 3 percent salary bonus to employees who haven’t received a raise in five years and other cuts in an attempt to close a $61 million budget gap. The board also debated smaller class sizes, which in some schools are larger than state guidelines. But Superintendent Erroll Davis said it wasn’t the time to spend $20 million or so to reduce class sizes so …
Wednesday, May 15, 2013
Police: Eighth grader brought plastic gun to school.
A 13-year-old boy was arrested and charged with bringing a gun to Inman Middle School, earlier this month. The boy, who was not named because he is a minor, brought the black-handled, silver colored, plastic gun to the school on May 1, according to a police report about the incident. The boy had shown the gun to different students around the school and another student reported it to school officials. Inman administrators pulled the student from his class, found the plastic gun inside his bookbag in his locker and summoned police. The boy's mother was subsequently called and the boy was charged with carrying a weapon at school. An Atlanta Public Schools spokesman did not return a Patch request for comment Wednesday. The incident is the …
This is your opportunity to voice the qualities and skill sets you want to see in the next superintendent of Atlanta Public Schools.
The Atlanta Board of Education’s Superintendent Search Committee has released the schedule for four community input sessions — May 15, 16, 20 and 21. The sessions are designed to give citizens the opportunity to provide feedback on the characteristics they believe are critical in the next Atlanta Public Schools superintendent. The Superintendent Search Committee has pledged to gather input from all key stakeholders such as parents, teacher and students. “All members of the search committee affirm the importance of gathering extensive community input in this search,” said committee chair Ann Cramer, who is a retired IBM executive and mother of former APS students. “We hope everyone interested will take advantage of this opportunity, and we …
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…
Wednesday, February 6, 2013
History teacher at Carver Early College and product of an APS education, Westmoreland says instilling success across all schools and having students meet or exceed expectations is not impossible.
As an honors student at Grady High School, Matt Westmoreland was struck by the racial differences at his school. Though a racially mixed school, he was cognizant of the divide, be it the racial homogeny of his honors classes compared with the non-honors courses or even the social interactions where white students mostly hung out in one area and black students in another. "While it was an amazing four years, I think the problems that plagued Grady are similar to the ones that we face in the city that I've called home my entire life," the Princeton University graduate told a group of Atlanta Public Schools valedictorians and salutatorians in a 2011 speech. He urged them to give to their communities. "Don't forget about home," he said at the …
Thursday, January 31, 2013
Muhammad, whose district includes the Poncey-Highland neighborhood, said she wants to serve just one more term on the school board.
Brenda J. Muhammad, District 1 representative on the Atlanta Public Schools Board of Education, is seeking re-election for the seat. But the Woodland Hills resident, first elected to the board in 1997, said if she retains the seat, that that will be her final term on the school board. District 1 includes the Poncey-Highland neighborhood. Muhammad, who is program director of the Metropolitan Atlanta Crime Commission's Victim-Witness Assistance Program and founder of Mothers of Murdered Sons MOMS Inc. goes up against Leslie Grant of Grant Park, who has already announced her candidacy. Muhammad sat down with East Atlanta Patch recently to discuss the issues and her priorities for the upcoming term. These are excerpts from that interview: Q. …
Monday, January 28, 2013
Parents will have a chance to weigh in on school calendars for the 2013-2014 and 2014-2015 school years at a Jan. 28 meeting at Inman Middle.
In March, the Atlanta Board of Education will take action on the district calendars for the next two school years (2013-14 and 2014-2015). Parents can learn more about the proposed calendars and offer input at a public meeting from 5:30-7 p.m. on Monday, Jan. 28 at Inman Middle School. School officials began work on the new calendar at the start of the current school year, gathering data through a survey that gathered public input. See here for more information. The public can now comment on the proposed 2013-2014 and 2014-2015 calendars here. Grady High Gets Grant for Street Art Talk Up APS reports that Grady High School was 1 out of 10 high schools in America to receive a $2,000 Custom Culture Grant by VANS to create a street art …
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 …
Tuesday, January 15, 2013
Inman Middle School will be the site of a community meeting later in January to discuss the proposed calendars for the next two school years.
The Atlanta Board of Education voted on Monday to delay a decision on the Atlanta Public Schools calendars for the next two school years. Several community meetings have been planned in coming weeks to get public input. All of the meetings will take place from 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. as follows: At the beginning of the current school year, APS began gathering data through a public survey. The school board is now looking at making a decision in March on schedules for the 2013-2014 and 2014-2015 school years. Here's the APS Live Blog of Monday's meeting included the Superintendent's Report: The calendar development process for 2013-14 and 2014-15 included a community-wide survey with approximately 5,900 respondents as well as analysis of …
clancey
7:02 am on Wednesday, May 22, 2013
"Not filling current vacant positions for an extended period of time and reducing programs are other possible measures that could be taken to save money for the district" What are the "programs" that are to be reduced? more ›