School Superintendent Erroll Davis will weigh in on the Atlanta Public Schools' redistricting controversy next week, armed with new recommendations from a consulting team on closing some schools, merging others and leaving in tact school boundary lines in affluent north Buckhead.
Davis is set to submit his preliminary recommendations to the Atlanta school board during the board's monthly meeting on Monday. His final recommendation isn't due until April 9, after a series of public hearings that start March 12.
Since last November, hundreds of Atlanta school parents have attended meetings and written thousands of letters and emails, raising concerns about everything from splitting up neighborhoods to the influence of race and class in t deciding where their children will attend school.
At least six different maps with six different scenarios have been floated, some calling for as many as a dozen elementary schools and two middle schools to close.
Recommendations just out from a consulting team headed by demographer Jerome McKibben are based on citizen feedback from two rounds of community meetings held late last year and early this year, said Keith Bromery, school system spokesman.
Among McKibben's recommendations: no attendance zone changes in the north Buckhead area.
Parents in the Buckhead area made clear that they would rather deal with "potentially full schools," than with new boundary lines, McKibben said Friday.
"In the end, we just decided, unless absolutely necessary, why change the boundary," he said.
The superintendent, McKibben said, "will follow some recommendations, but not others.
"So [Davis' recommendation] will be somewhat different," he said
Bromery said the demographers' latest scenario "is being taken into consideration as the superintendent develops his preliminary redistricting proposal."
The Rev. Carrie Dean, co-pastor of Edgewood Church and a member of the local school council at Whitefoord Elementary, hopes McKibben's recommendations will hold.
The school, which was established in 1923, had been slated to be merged with Burgess-Peterson. But under McKibben's recommendations, both schools would stay open at least three years to see how an expected jump in pre-school enrollment plays out.
"I'm obviously excited there's a possibility of Whitefoord staying open," Dean said.
Redrawing APS
Recommended changes to the district's attendance map so far include :
-- making Grove Park Elementary/Woodson Elementary into a K-2/3-5 center and closing Boyd, White and F.L. Stanton elementary schools;
-- merging Towns and Fain elementary schools;
-- opening Coretta Scott King Middle/and the all-male B.E.S.T. Academy to districtwide enrollment;
-- expanding Springdale Park Elementary or create a kindergarten center to serve Springdale Park, Mary Lin and Morningside elementary schools;
-- closing East Lake Elementary and merge with Toomer Elementary;
-- merging Hill/Hope and Cook elementary schools;
-- building a 6th grade center with at least 500 students, allowing Centennial Place Elementary to remain in the Grady cluster;
-- closing Thomasville Heights and merging it into Benteen Elementary;
-- closing Humphries Elementary and merging a portion of that attendance zone into Cleveland Avenue and the balance into Heritage Academy;
-- closing Capitol View Elementary and Parks Middle, though consideration should be given to waiting one to three years on Capitol View;.
-- merge Herndon and Bethune elementary schools;
-- making Adamsville and Miles elementary schools a K-2/3-5 center;
-- and closing the Kennedy Middle School.
What's next:
-- Superintendent Davis formally submits his recommendations to the Atlanta school board Monday afternoon
-- Public hearings kick off March 12
-- Superintendent's final recommendation goes on line April 9
-- Formal presentation to the school board and board final vote on April 10
--Changes effective with the 2012-2013 school year
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