APS Board: 'There's no one plan that's going to please everybody'

Update: Friday, Feb. 10

Patch will be soon be providing a recap of Thursday's meeting. At the conclusion, APS Board Member Brenda Muhammad said, "We're trying our best to do what is in the best interest of every neighborhood. But as you know, someone is going to be disappointed about something. There's no one plan that's going to please everybody.

"We ask that you please be supportive of us. Please be patient; allow us to get the final recommendations from the superintendant and then begin to look at those. And we'll take everything that you've said...and try to make sure those have been incorporated in some way or another if possible."

Original story: Thursday, Feb. 9

We're live beginning at 7 p.m. for Thursday's Atlanta Public Schools Board Listening Session from 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.

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.

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