Most people agree growth is a good thing. But keeping up with the growing number of students in parts of Atlanta can mean a lot of short term fixes. Drive past many Atlanta schools and next to the solid old building you’ll find newer, temporary structures. Don’t call them trailers, they’re portable classrooms! But sooner or later students, parents, teachers and even administrators will want something better, something a little more permanent. There’s always build, baby, build, but sometimes the solution is just waiting there patiently.
In one of Atlanta’s intown neighborhoods, Grady High School and the schools that feed students into it are called the Grady cluster. They are very overcrowded and home to many of those portable classrooms. Atlanta Public Schools Superintendent Meria Carstarphen has a plan help these crowded schools. Part of the plan will turn a high school into a middle school. How does that help? David T. Howard High School has been closed since 1976. It hasn’t gone anywhere and still belongs to the school system, so it may be ready for what will be at least its third act.
Howard was originally an elementary school. It opened in the 1920s. Back then it was home to only one kind of student: African-Americans. One of the students who walked those halls was Martin Luther King, Jr. While he’s definitely the school’s most famous alumnus, some other well-known names went there too. It will take millions of dollars to make it a usable school again. Recently, the AJC’s Bob Andres paid a visit to the building. Check out his photos in this gallery.
