Toomer Elementary (White: high school, live in, to relocate)

[magnetar]

Originally Posted by travbo

The Whitefoord closure is being pushed and celebrated by that community even though only a handful of individuals in that community currently support public schools. They are basically holding APS hostage by saying they want their kids in Burgess Peterson or else.

Would love to see a source for this claim, since I'm a member of the private neighborhood group, and most residents, including parents of school-age children, were surprised by this announcement when it was made to Whitefoord parents several weeks ago. Since learning about the change, they may have rallied in support of it, but the decision came down from the Superintendent, not from this neighborhood. As a matter of fact, a group of pre-school-age parents had begun organizing to support Whitefoord now, in hopes of helping to improve the school by the time their children were old enough.

Originally Posted by Forhall

Wow, well that's very unfair. Property values in that area have been climbing mainly because Toomer is doing very well and the area is getting affluent. Rezoning Whitefoord, a predominantly lower income and low performing school, is going to really bring down the average. Anyone waiting for their property values to shoot up when Toomer is at a 8 or 9 on Great Schools just got kneecapped by APS. Adding in Whitefoord probably keeps Toomer at no higher than 5 for many years.

I am generally unswayed by arguments that schools meant for educating young children should make operational decisions based on maximizing the value of property owners' investments. I am also fairly disgusted by them.

[arjay57]

Here's the agenda for Monday's meeting on the changes at Toomer and and Whitefoord.


http://www.boarddocs.com/ga/aps/Boar...d=AHYSQ5729178

[red92s]

Originally Posted by arjay57

Here's the agenda for Monday's meeting on the changes at Toomer and and Whitefoord.


BoardDocs® Agenda Item: 2.05 Potential School Changes - Dr. Meria Carstarphen, Superintendent (20 minutes)

Seems like largely the same information that has bee circulated previously, with some extra stock photography.

[arjay57]

Here is a man who says the charter schools are hurting the public schools on the east side of town.

I have lived in east Atlanta for 35 years My four now grown daughters all attended Atlanta Public Schools. They attended APS before the creation of charter schools.

There is no question the charter schools in southeast Atlanta (Drew, Atlanta Neighborhood Charter, and Wesley International Academy) are a drain on the traditional neighborhood public schools. But the quality of education these schools are offering is not the only reason and often not the main reason that parents send their children to them.

I live in the Burgess-Peterson school zone. Many parents I meet in the neighborhood are sending their children or planning on sending their children to Drew. They are doing so not because they think Drew is a better elementary school than Burgess-Peterson Academy. (The fact is Burgess is doing a great job and is an exciting school.) Parents are sending their children to Drew because of their concerns about middle school and high school.

More....East Atlanta is booming. What does Atlanta Public Schools have to do to benefit from boom? | Get Schooled

[red92s]

"I live in the Burgess-Peterson school zone. Many parents I meet in the neighborhood are sending their children or planning on sending their children to Drew".

There is a lot of truth of what's in that piece. However,I don't know that the above going to be a reliable strategy for people in the Burgess Peterson zone going forward. Drew's recently renewed charter puts those applicants from the Burgess area lower in the pecking order for lottery spots at Drew, since it prioritizes East Lake and Kirkwood.

Additionally, under the new charter, Drew can selectively apply an economic criteria. K-5 applicants in this years lottery who qualify as economical disadvantaged get 5:1 odds of selection versus 1:1 for families who don't. Those names "go into the hat" FIVE times instead of once. I'd be pretty surprised to see any new kids from the Burgess zone be selected in this years Drew lottery, particularly those who don't meet the economic hardship criteria.

Families that already have one kid at Drew are probably safe for younger siblings that follow, even though that's no longer a sure thing either. Families that don't are going to face a statistical struggle.

[arjay57]

Well, this is about D.C. but it could have some parallels in the ATL.

https://www.citylab.com/housing/2017...gation/516783/

[cqholt]

APS, Community Meet To Discuss Closing Whitefoord Elementary | WABE 90.1 FM

[cqholt]

Atlanta School Board approves plan to close schools, send more kids to Toomer | Decaturish - Locally sourced news

[red92s]

let's see if those "additional resources" actually materialize this time around. They sure didn't when Toomer and East Lake merged. Wish APS could find a new dog to kick for a couple years instead of continually coming back here for more.

[arjay57]

APS should be nurturing Toomer, not jerking it around. Toomer has all the ingredients to become the next superstar elementary in APS.