Atlanta schools to buy land for new elementary building

Atlanta Public Schools plans to buy property that district officials said is needed to build a new school at the former Woodson Elementary School site.

The Atlanta Board of Education approved spending $83,200 on Monday to purchase a nearly half-acre residential site at 698 Francis Place, N.W. That price is the property’s appraised value, according to the district.

The property is part of a plan to build a new Woodson Park school at the location of the former Woodson Elementary, which the board voted in 2016 to close and merge with Grove Park Intermediate to create Woodson Park Academy. The academy, which enrolled 622 students as of fall 2017, is currently located at 20 Evelyn Way in the Douglass High School cluster.

The district's building plan calls for APS to contribute $18.5 million for the project, to be paid for with a one-penny sales tax. Construction is to begin a year from now and be complete by July 2020, according to district documents.

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