From Atlanta Business Chronicle
Atlanta Public Schools superintendent Erroll B. Davis, Jr., in a proposal posted on the school district’s website late Sunday, calls for closing 13 schools and recommends no redistricting of the crowded North Atlanta High School cluster.
The North Atlanta High School cluster (often called the Buckhead cluster), would remain intact under Davis’ plan. Some proposals have called for sending students outside the cluster, prompting parents to march and circulate petitions.
Davis’ proposal says North Atlanta High School would transition to its new home in 2013. Sutton would move to the former North Atlanta High building, and construction at fast-growing E. Rivers Elementary in Buckhead would begin in 2013. Students would move to the former Sutton facility during construction under the plan. No students at E. Rivers would be moved outside the cluster, he added. Once student capacity is reached at Sutton’s new home (North Atlanta High), the old Sutton facility may be used as a sixth-grade academy, Davis said.
According to school officials there are approximately 47,000 students in the Atlanta school system – 50,000 counting charter schools. The student population is down in some southern portions of the city, but exploding at some north Atlanta schools. The district has space for approximately 60,000 children, and officials says some schools that are not being highly utilized are wasting money by remaining open. Closing schools would eliminate approximately 7,200 of the system’s 13,000 -seat excess, the proposal states.
Click here to see all the proposed changes
Here is an example of the North Atlanta Cluster:
- Atlanta Public School Clusters