"...Spark, Inman, Grady today; Keep it that way..." (McDonough: middle schools, zoned)
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Your right, that's what parents at Toomer Elementary did, they worked hard to improve the school. This year it won an award fro the governor's office. So then why can't Mary-Lin go to Coan and Jackson to help improve those schools? APS makes it seem that they are too affluent to be moved.
Good for Toomer! Let's hope they just keep on getting better and better!
How is shifting the kids from Mary Lin over to Coan and Jackson going to make those schools better? Would that have any impact on the kids currently attending Lin?
Good for Toomer! Let's hope they just keep on getting better and better!
How is shifting the kids from Mary Lin over to Coan and Jackson going to make those schools better? Would that have any impact on the kids currently attending Lin?
Any time you increase the number of parents who are active in the schools, the schools improve.
If you take some Lin kids and move them to another school, their parents are going to still be active in their child's education (assuming they were to begin with).
Any time you increase the number of parents who are active in the schools, the schools improve.
If you take some Lin kids and move them to another school, their parents are going to still be active in their child's education (assuming they were to begin with).
You're right about that. I personally know some parents whose kids could be transferred to a lower performing school. While they are not enthused about it, they have basically said, "We'll do our best and try to improve things for everyone."
"... 10-year plan to address overcapacity at Inman and Grady: • Centennial Elementary becomes K-8 and continues to feed into Grady • Morningside, Springdale Park and Hope Hill feed into Inman, then into Grady • Mary Lin feeds into Coan and Jackson
The benefits of this plan: Requires no money — no construction or additional facilities of any kind would be required Could be implemented as a sustainable, 10-year solution beginning in August ‘12 Keeps enrollment within, or close to both Inman and Grady’s school capacities, for the entire 10-year window Allows Inman to remain intact on its existing campus as a 6-8 middle school for 10 years with the ability to accommodate future in-zone growth during that time Allows Inman to function exactly as it does now with three teams of four teachers per grade level Maintains three lunch periods, one per grade level All connections and extracurricular activities operate the same as they do now Maintains Inman as a walkable neighborhood school for many of its students Maintains diversity and Title 1 funding at both Inman and Grady Uses only existing facilities that are already operational Allows Coan Middle School to remain open and continue to serve its community* Reduces transportation costs and impact on city traffic and the environment *Coan could be fed by Mary Lin, Toomer, Whitefoord, and possibly Burgess Peterson – there is no reason why this could not be a dynamic, successful, high-performing school..."
Also from the 10 year plan:
"... We reject an Inman 6th grade annex, or a 5/6 configuration, for the following reasons: • Annexes/split campuses are costly, requiring duplication of resources including principal, staff and administrative personnel • Creates an additional transition for students • Large grade level sizes (from 350-500 students over the next 10 years) • Decreased parental involvement (lower parental investment in a one/two-year school, plus time constraints due to a removed campus) • Creates an extended school day for students who have to be bused farther distances • Creates difficulty in getting students to morning tutorials • Negatively impacts after school activities, clubs, intramurals and extracurricular activities (band, orchestra, and chorus), many of which are multi-grade level • Transportation issues – necessitates extra buses, increases costs, creates scheduling difficulties, negatively impacts traffic and the environment • Connections: Art, Drama, Foreign Language and other electives use teachers for more than one grade level • Difficulties and additional cost of administration split between two campuses..."
Lot of good ideas there. Of course one of the objections people raise is that you are only young once. I got into a big argument with one of my cousins up North who said, "We're not going to allow our kids to be an experiment while their peers are going to schools that are already high performing. How can we justify refusing to give them the best educational opportunity?"
I know he's taking an "I-want-the-best-for-my-family" attitude but there are a good many people like that.
If you take some Lin kids and move them to another school, their parents are going to still be active in their child's education (assuming they were to begin with).
I don't think Inman is the Harvard of middle schools by any means, but in rankings like this one it is in the top 10% of the state, and the top-ranked for APS. Coan, meanwhile, is in the bottom 10% of the state. Many parents who are active in their child's education would likely make other arrangements. I've said it before and I'll say it again here - a result like this wouldn't cause me to bail on APS by any means. I have the luxury of time as my kids are only in kindergarten. But many families I know who have kids in 4th and 5th grade have already begun making backup plans. That's not supposed to be a threat of some sort - it's just reality.
Ultimately, all this is moot for now, as this idea has been passed over by both the demographers and now the superintendent. Not because of politicking or throwing our weight around or other conspiracy theories that are out there, but because simply put - like I said above - the numbers don't work. This "10 year plan" completely ignores what to do with ML King (which is proposed to merge with Coan) and would leave two underutilized middle schools (do the math - even if you managed to get all ML kids into Coan over the five years, it is below target utilization) when the superintendent is pushing to transform from the current SRT system to the single middle/single high school cluster model.
superintendent is pushing to transform from the current SRT system to the single middle/single high school cluster model.
How is having a middle school with 1600 students going to help kids during the most difficult years of growing? Yes, Coan has 900 seats, but there is a baby bubble brewing in Edgewood, Kirkwood, East Lake. It is not wise for APS to close Coan and then 10 years later have to repair the infrastructure to accommodate the bubble as the kids move from elementary to middle.
How is having a middle school with 1600 students going to help kids during the most difficult years of growing? Yes, Coan has 900 seats, but there is a baby bubble brewing in Edgewood, Kirkwood, East Lake. It is not wise for APS to close Coan and then 10 years later have to repair the infrastructure to accommodate the bubble as the kids move from elementary to middle.
Inman isn't expected to get to 1600 students. If left as is, the demographers numbers had the peak over the next 10 years at 1200. That seems high, but it still pales in comparison to the 2000+ that will be at Sutton.
Also using the demographers numbers, I would expect that the baby bubble in Kirkwood, Edgewood and East Lake have been accounted for. You can debate whether their numbers are accurate, but they are the best we have to go on. As an aside, many in the Mary Lin community believe they overestimated the number of students for our school, and we won't be hitting the peaks that they stated.
Don't get me wrong - I'm not advocating for Coan to close, and I'm certainly not advocating it to be used as the "Inman 6th Grade Annex". I believe Kirkwood and Edgewood have just cause for viewing that as insult to injury, unintended or not.
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