ATLANTA — Atlanta Public Schools is holding community meetings so families can weigh in on its facilities plan, which could close some schools.
Parent Ena Brooks is closely monitoring the plan. She’s the Co-President of North Atlanta Partners for Public Schools (NAPPS). She said she and other parents are concerned the district’s plan would close the 6th grade only Sutton Middle School.
The district is weighing several scenarios, according to APS documents.
“Parents love the fact that 6th graders are kind of by themselves, it gives them that year to kind of float themselves in, get accustomed to middle school,” said Brooks.
Her now 7th grader attended, and she hopes her younger child can attend one day too. She believes the unique school setup offers numerous benefits.
“They’re all starting middle school for the first time, nobody’s been there, everybody’s kind of on the same ground, and with that, that helps them build relationships,” Brooks said.
District leaders said APS is designed for 70,000 students. Still, currently, only about 50,000 are enrolled, suggesting that fewer schools and realignment of schools could help improve programming and bring in millions more in funding.
Parent Annsley Klehr is the Co-President of the Council of Intown Neighborhoods and Schools (CINS).
“From our perspective, we just are listening and learning,” Klehr said.
She said some families in her cluster believe school utilization is at the right level, while others believe Midtown HS is overcrowded.
“A lot of thoughts we heard are kind of having more signature programming at some of the other high schools that would potentially, over time, alleviate crowding; however, if students could then choose what kind of signature programming they wanted and then leave to another school by will,” Klehr said.
District leaders said part of the plan’s goal is to improve programming at schools.
This set of scenarios lists about 20 schools to consider for closure. The district said a narrower set of scenarios will go to the board for a vote.
11Alive wanted to know whether students at any of the potentially closing schools are eligible for private school vouchers under the state’s Georgia Promise Scholarship, and it turns out that students at three of the schools are. Those schools are Finch Elementary School, Peyton Forest Elementary School, and Continental Colony Elementary School.
Those vouchers can also be used for other educational expenses, such as textbooks or transportation.
11Alive News asked Atlanta Public Schools if they believe students being eligible for vouchers at those schools is playing a role in enrollment, and the need to potentially close schools
In the statement below, Atlanta Public Schools said there’s not enough data to determine if the program is having a direct effect.
“It’s to early to know what impact, if any, the Georgia Promise Scholarship program is having on enrollment at APS schools. The program only launched this school year, so there isn’t enough data yet to determine a direct effect.
What we can say is that enrollment challenges at schools like Finch, Peyton Forest, and Continental Colony have been long-standing challenges and reflect trends impacting school districts throughout the state of Georgia and nationwide. These trends predate the scholarship program and are more directly tied to broader demographic and community factors — such as the lack of affordable housing, which has forced many families to move elsewhere.
While the Georgia Promise Scholarship may play a role going forward, we have not yet seen the data to confirm that. At this point, the more significant contributors to low enrollment are those long-term demographic and housing trends.”
Click here for the dates and times of future meetings.
The district is also asking for feedback on the scenarios in an online survey here.
