Parents and guardians of current Grady High School students are encouraged to vote Thursday for the Local School Council Parent Representative spot that will fill Debbie Scott Williams’ unexpired term that ends in May 2013.

The Local School Council is a legislatively mandated collaborative group of parents, teachers, business partners and the school principal, assembled to address issues related to student achievement.

The two candidates today are Sherri Caldwell and Janet Kishbaugh. Copies of candidate bios are available in the Parent Center and online at the Grady LSC web page. Links for the candidate's page can be found here.

Voting will take place between 7:45 am and 6 p.m. (or 6:30 p.m.). Check the Theater Lobby and the Main Office for location, and for more info, contact Leah McLeod at mcleod.leah@gmail.com or 404-259-6428. 

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Friday is the final day for residents to take the Atlanta Public Schools survey and explain what they like or dislike about the current redistricting options that have been presented following the demographic survey.

The online survey form can be found here and the new zoning options are posted here. Midtown is currently zoned to Springdale Park Elementary, Inman Middle, and Grady. The maps currently do not change the zoning, but both options split up Midtown at 15^th St. at the elementary level. 

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The following letter was sent to Atlanta Public Schools superintendent Erroll B. Davis, Jr. on behalf of the Inman Middle School local school council.

Mr. Davis,

The Local School Council at Inman Middle School would like to take this opportunity to address the current proposals for redistricting in SRT-3. Inman’s population currently stands at 889 students. This is 130 students over capacity of 770. Under Option A, 150 students that are currently from the Centennial Place feeder would be removed from the population. However, this does not happen until 2017. Under Option B you immediately add the students from Kirkwood and offer no relief until 2015. As you know there is a large bubble that is currently flowing through the feeder schools that will make their way to Inman over the next five years. We feel the neither Proposal A nor Proposal B address the imminent overcrowding issues at Inman.

In addressing overcrowding at Inman, we would like Atlanta Public Schools to focus on three main concerns of the Inman community.

1^st – The middle school solution at Inman should focus on including the five Grady feeder schools Hope-Hill, Morningside, Centennial Place, Springdale Park, and Mary Lin. We feel that these students who are ultimately slated to attend Grady should be included in a middle school solution for the cluster. 

2^nd – APS should stop borrowing middle school space from other clusters in order to accommodate students who will eventually go to Grady, as doing so weakens the cluster.

3^rd – The $30,000,000 in SPLOST-IV budgeted for a “New Midtown Middle School” should be slated for increasing the number of middle school seats in the Grady cluster, which serves Midtown.

While the Inman community is supportive of Centennial’s desire to expand to a K-8 program, under no circumstances do we advocate or endorse any plan to exclude any of the current schools from the current feeder pattern. Alternatively, the Inman community feels that these issues can be addressed through one of the following solutions.

• Expand the current seating capacity on the current site of Inman. This could be done through an expansion or through the building of a self-contained 6^th grade academy on the current site.
• Look at alternative grade level configurations that would relieve overcrowding at Inman. This might be done through a 5^th and 6^th grade school or 6th grade academy located at a new site in the current Inman area.
• Open a new middle school in the current Inman area.

We request that APS strive to maintain racial diversity at any of the middle school solutions above. In addition, we want to make sure students with special needs are served within our community.

While we understand that any of these solutions may take a few years to implement, we want to make sure that Inman has the support it needs during that period to ensure the academic success of its students. In addition, as we know that these are very complicated issues and that the community needs to be involved in the plans, we advocate for the establishment of a community forum for the Inman area. This forum would foster communication.

Respectfully,

Mike Szalkowski

Chair Inman Middle School LSC

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In other Inman Middle news, a sixth grade social studies teacher was featured in a New York Times article this past week. Truly, Margaret Edsonis is more than just a passionate educator as she won a Pulitzer Prize in 1999 after writing her first play, “Wit.”

The play is being featured on Broadway in a Manhattan Theater Club production and stars Sex and the City actress Cynthia Nixon. Read more about Edson and “With” in the New York Times Theater section.

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There will be a parent workshop and principal's coffee meeting Thursday afternoon in the Inman Media Center. The parent workshop on Cyber Safety and Cyber Bullying will begin at 5 p.m. The presenter will be Crystal Lottig, executive director of Instructional Technology. The principal's coffee, with Paula Herrema, will follow at 6 p.m.

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Interim Inman Principal Herrema asks for continued assistance in providing the safest plan for students by asking motorists to discontinue left hand turns into or out of the traffic circle parking lot during drop-off and dismissal.

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Legislation proposed by the state electorate directly impacts children and the resources in schools, and ome legislation can have more significant impact than redistricting – it can remove funds from all schools. 

Inman PTA President Andrea Casson-Galliano notes the House took up HR 1162 last week, and the proposed amendment would enable political appointees to override the decisions of local school boards and local voters and re-direct tax funds to any “special school” the state creates or designates. It initially failed but will be brought up again and some who voted no have indicated that on the second vote, they will vote yes. 

According to Casson-Galliano, some representatives said they haven’t heard from very many constituents. The Inman PTA is encouraging residents to call their legislator today and urge them to vote no. Click here to find the names and contact information of representatives.

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Grady clubs and organizations interested in fundraising in the Grady parking lot during spring weekends are encouraged to send an email to ghsfun20112012@gmail.com. Please include your club/organization name, teacher's name, and teacher's email address. 

An email will be sent with available dates. You may choose three dates, one of which will be selected for you. These dates do not include the events occurring at Piedmont Park or Park Tavern. Those will be determined by a lottery in late spring.

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Cindy Smith is Grady’s newest representative to the Council of Intown Neighborhood and Schools (CINS) and may be reached at csmith@unitedbsa.org. CINS is a not-for-profit organization that has worked for over 33 years to empower public schools in the Grady cluster while enhancing neighborhoods in the heart of Atlanta, Georgia. 

CINS’ mission is to work with Atlanta Public Schools to foster the development of safe, quality education in the Grady cluster of schools. For more information on CINS and its mission, please see here, or to become a member or add your name to the CINS’ eblast list, click here. 

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Finally, congratulations to the Grady boys basketball team, who will be playing in the 2011-2012 GHSA State Basketball Tournament this weekend. The Knights, 22-4, will travel to Carrollton on Friday to face Carrollton High School in a Class AAA matchup.