Atlanta City Council on Monday agreed to transfer deeds to seven more properties to Atlanta Public Schools.
Council voted Monday to give the school district the deeds to five current and former elementary school sites: Morris Brandon, Humphries, Bethune, E.S.Jackson, and D.H. Stanton, now known as Barack and Michelle Obama Academy; as well as the deeds to Frederick Douglass High School and Walden Middle School. Walden closed in 2008 because of declining enrollment, but the district is building an $8 million athletic complex at the site.
The transfer of the seven properties is in addition to 31 properties that the city turned over in February.
The city plans to transfer more than 50 properties to APS, but additional legal work and due diligence is being done before the remaining properties are handed over.
Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms campaigned on a promise to give the school district control of school properties held by the city since the city and school district became separate legal entities more than 40 years ago. Her predecessor, Kasim Reed, had battled with the school district over the sites.
After Bottoms took office, the city and APS put on hold a lengthy and costly court battle over the deeds while they work to settle the dispute out of court.
Superintendent Meria Carstarphen said the district is embarking on a facilities master planning project which will help determine what to do with all of its properties. She said that plan will look at where families are moving to determine which properties the district should keep in order to potentially build new schools.
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