Atlanta schools superintendent Meria Carstarphen called for the city to unite behind her emerging plans to improve Atlanta Public Schools ahead of potential state takeover, plans which are likely to bring major disruptions to some of the city’s worst schools.
“We won’t have the time to fight,” Carstarphen said at a State of the District speech Thursday.
More than 40 Atlanta schools are at high risk of state takeover if Gov. Nathan Deal’s Opportunity School District plan, which allows the state to take control of low-performing schools, is approved by voters next year—though it’s unlikely that more than a few schools statewide would be selected initially.
In the coming year, Carstarphen’s administration will focus on turning around elementary schools in the Douglass and Carver clusters. Those schools are considered the lowest performing based on their state report card scores and other measures, she said.
That could mean bringing in a charter school group to operate schools or replacing school principals and teachers, Carstarphen said.
“I know this is going to be hard on people,” she said. But “I’m convinced that the state of the district for Atlanta Public Schools requires that we consider options like this.”
Schools in other neighborhoods — even schools at the highest risk of state takeover — will not get the same treatment initially as the targeted Douglass and Carver schools.
Carstarphen gave her address in the former Howard High School, which she has proposed turning into Atlanta’s newest middle school to serving students feeding into Grady High School.
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