APS Board to Hear from Midtown Thursday

Midtown residents are encouraged to attend Thursday’s Atlanta Public Schools Board Listening Session from 7-9 p.m. at the Auditorium. The event is being hosted by the Council of Intown Neighborhoods and Schools.

This will be an opportunity for residents to address the APS Board of Education directly with regards to the current APS redistricting process. Midtown Patch will covering the event live beginning at 7 p.m.

Residents are planning to meet at 5:30 p.m. at the corner of Virginia Avenue/ N. Highland Avenue and at 10th/Piedmont  and walking together to emphasize their message. The Springdale Park Elementary School (SPARK) community was effective in communicating their message during the first round of the redistricting process and is hoping for a large turnout this evening.

The redistricting process will transition from the demographers to APS officials in March after the public comment period ends. Current APS maps can be viewed here. Midtown neighborhood residents are expcted to stress several points to the board tonight including:

• Maintaining SPARK’s attendance zones and provide the resources to support them for the next ten years. 
• Rejecting the split primary model for the elementary schools in the SRT, which increases transitions for the children, sends children from communities to schools farther away from their homes, and exacerbates capacity issues at Inman. 
• Supporting the superintendent’s guiding principle to avoid splitting neighborhoods. Residents do not support splitting Midtown between SPARK and MES. Nor splitting Morningside-Lenox between Morningside Elementary and the new SRT-4 elementary school.

Residents would like for APS make a 10-year commitment to not change the attendance zones and allocate the resources necessary to support them. This would include dedicated classroom space allocated for children with disabilities to attend their neighborhood schools, as well as for gifted pull-out sessions.

They also would like to see the creation of a stakeholder group drawn from the Grady feeder schools and community interests to provide input on a final solution.

After tonight, the March 1 BOE meeting will be the final opportunity for residents to address the board and superintendent before the latter makes his final recommendations.

Residents have also been urged to complete an online survey form before Feb. 24.