Atlanta superintendent addresses parent complaints at town hall meeting
Erroll Davis,Atlanta Public Schools superintendent, on Tuesday night spoke at another town-hall meeting, fielding parental complaints, though not about the district cheating scandal.
The meeting was held at Parkside Elementary School, where three teachers previously confessed to helping students cheat on the 2009 Criterion-Referenced Competency Tests, according to an investigation by the Georgia governor's office. The cheating allegations were not a big topic at the Grant Park neighborhood school.
Instead, parents came with urgent problems. Don Sparks wanted to know why there was no math teacher for his daughter, a junior at the School of the Arts at Carver.
"We're acutely and painfully aware of the situation there," Davis responded, adding that APS has had a hard time finding math teachers.
Davis also responded to another woman concerned about students transferring from schools on the Southside to schools with better reputations in the north.
The superintendent said he hoped people were transferring out of concerns for quality and safety, which he could do something about, rather than something societal.
Davis He touted the Early College High School at Carver, south of downtown, saying teachers know to send their kids there because it is the "highest-performing school we have right now. ... I don't know that everybody knows that; we haven't publicized it."
About the Author
Ty Tagami is a staff writer for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Since joining the newspaper in 2002, he has written about everything from hurricanes to homelessness. He has deep experience covering local government and education, and can often be found under the Gold Dome when lawmakers meet or in a school somewhere in the state.
