Fulton County Schools seek community input on plan for new STEM school

Community members as well as teachers greeted students as they returned to Hamilton E. Holmes Elementary School for the 2018-2019 school year.

Credit: Bob Andres/AJC

Credit: Bob Andres/AJC

Community members as well as teachers greeted students as they returned to Hamilton E. Holmes Elementary School for the 2018-2019 school year.

Fulton County Schools plans to open a new STEM-focused school in Fairburn in 2021.

But before the school system starts work on the school with an emphasis on science, technology, engineering and math, it wants to hear from the community.

The school system has scheduled two community meetings in South Fulton later this month where parents and other residents can talk with school leaders, staff and teachers about plans for the STEM school.

The meetings are set for Sept. 17 at Camp Creek Middle School and Sept. 18 at Asa G. Hilliard Elementary School. Both meetings will begin at 6:30 p.m.

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Linda Bryant, the school board president, will attend the meeting at Camp Creek. Kimberly Dove, a District 6 school board member, will attend the meeting at Hilliard.

The school set to open in Fairburn in time for fall 2021 classes will serve grades six through 12.

During the community meeting, district staff will share information on how the STEM school’s planned curriculum, along with its academic and job preparedness benefits for students and how . This school will also feature an advisory program so that students learn to “support each other in a kind and empathetic manner,” a release from the school system says.

Admissions criteria will not be discussed, the release says.

In addition to the South Fulton STEM school, a similar campus will be located in north Fulton County, opening in 2020. Gwinnett County opened a new STEM high school earlier this year in Norcross.

Fulton County Schools say the STEM schools are being built through SPLOST (Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax) funds — the education sales tax that funds new school construction, additions and renovations, technology innovations and safety improvements.

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