Midtown School News To Use

The Atlanta Board of Education is set to meet Monday, July 9 for the first time in more than a month. Chief Financial Officer Chuck Burbridge is expected to deliver a financial forecast at the Committee of the Whole meeting at 3:30 p.m.

The community meeting is set for 6 p.m. and input from students/staff/parents and members of the community is welcomed. Speaker sign in is from 5-5:30 p.m. and the legislative meeting begins at 7 p.m.

The meetings are at 130 Trinity Avenue in downtown Atlanta and charter school issues not specifically related to Midtown are expected to be a hot topic. The full agenda can be found at the APS website here. Here’s a recap from APS on the most recent board meeting on June 4:

Financial Update

• On June 4th prior to the June board meetings, we held our Budget Commission meeting on the FY13 budget, and at the board's committee-of-the-whole session, CFO Chuck Burbridge gave the monthly financial update.
• We expect to close FY12 within our operating budget of approx. $605M.
• For FY13, we've made some adjustments after receiving the community's feedback from several budget meetings and after identifying additional cost savings.
• This process will continue throughout the year.
• Although the current budget proposal accomplishes many goals, it does not achieve all goals for everyone.
• We have made some difficult but necessary decisions -in order to live within our means and focus our resources on students.

What has changed from tentative FY13 budget:

○ Instructional staff reduction limited to approx. 8% compared to 11% in previous proposal - reduction of 350 to 375 instructional positions

○ 4 potential furlough days for employees (we're going to try to eliminate one of them) (2 originally proposed)

○ Reduction of custodial staff through structural changes and   attrition

What has NOT changed:

○ Still closing a $47M budget gap without sacrificing needs of students/schools

○ Central office department cuts are deeper than cuts to instruction - on avg. 10% vs. 7% for C&I

○ No loss of instructional time: 180 days

○ Full day of pre-K and other early learning resources

○ Enhancements to our arts programs

○ No cuts to athletics

○ Enhancements to our foreign language programs

○ Continued commitment to rigor and equity across the district so that we can be ready to implement Common Core GPS next year

Culture of Service: Customer Service Training

• Part of being ready for next year is our ongoing emphasis on organizational culture.
• We are in pursuit of a culture of service across APS: Our schools and offices should be welcoming places for APS employees, families and friends.
• To meet this goal, we held district wide customer service training in May (400+ participants)
• Additional training will take place during pre-planning week.
• We will adopt/implement customer service standards for the 2012-13 SY.
• This project will be ongoing to ensure excellent customer service in support of student achievement.

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The school system is getting ready to welcome its first class of candidates for the Atlanta Urban Teacher Residency Program. Sixteen candidates will be appointed: 11 in math and five in science. Similar to a medical residency, a teacher residency allows new professionals to partner one on one with an experienced instructional professional during their first year of training.

Residents will spend four days a week learning and teaching in an APS middle or high school classroom alongside their resident advisors. And residents will spend their fifth day as a group studying graduate-level coursework at Georgia State University. The objective is for residents to receive a master's level teaching degree, a teaching certificate and ongoing professional support so that they can be effective in their classrooms.

The full residency program requires a commitment of five years in APS, including the initial residency year. This teacher residency program is something that's been in development for some time. We're glad to see the first cohort selected and ready to undertake a fulfilling career in education. 

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While the school year won’t begin for about another month for most APS kids and educators, a trio of year-round APS elementary schools, including , head back to the classroom on Tuesday.

Centennial Place, located at 531 Luckie Street, will hold its annual Back to School Meet & Greet on Monday, July 9 in the school’s cafeteria. There will be PTA and staff introductions beginning at 10 a.m., followed by classroom visitation.

Click here for a 2012-2013 Centennial Place school supply list and here for year-round school bus routes.

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Crews are busy working to install additional portable classrooms on the field at as the additional classrooms will house seventh grade students.

The APS board of education at Inman earlier this year as part of an effort to redraw school attendance zones.

A record number of students will attend Inman next school year and the portable classrooms are needed to accommodate the growing population.

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For students who missed the deadline to re-register or are new to , the next dates to do so are July 25th, 26th, 27th, and 31st, and August 1st and 2nd.  See here for more information.