#Education
Target:
Atlanta Board of Education
Region:
United States of America

As a result of steadily increasing enrollment at Sutton Middle School from the six feeder elementary schools (Bolton, Brandon, Jackson, Garden Hills, E.Rivers and Sarah Smith) Sutton’s planning capacity of 1040 has now been exceeded. Based on current projections enrollment is expected to grow to 1340 students in the 2011-2012 school year.

After studying options and soliciting input the Atlanta Public School System announced plans to address the need for additional middle school capacity by constructing a new state-of-the-art high school that will serve the North Atlanta High School students. The current North Atlanta High facility will become a second IB middle school or Sixth Grade Academy for the northside neighborhood. It has been estimated to cost of $35-$45 million and could be ready for the 2012-2013 school year assuming the property is secured by the end of 2010. The Atlanta Board of Education is responsible for approving a site.

For more information please visit the following link on the APS SRT-4 web site:
http://srt4.atlantapublicschools.us/sutton/cwp/view.asp?A=3&Q=277245

Several sites are being considered. One site located at the current Paces Apartments on East Andrews Drive was recently removed from consideration. Another site at the IBM offices located at Northside Parkway north of Mount Paran Road is being mentioned as an alternative site. These two sites are different in many ways. Whereas the Paces Apartments location is near the center of the North Atlanta community in the heart of Buckhead, the Northside Parkway site is located at the northern-most border of the North Atlanta zone, sandwiched between a four-lane highway and Interstate highway isolated from the community it serves.

The purpose of this petition is to express to the Atlanta Board of Education the clear need to select a site that is centrally located within the community it serves, readily accessible to families wherever they may reside within the school zone, and that is fully compatible with the neighborhood school concept.

As concerned parents, taxpayers, residents and neighbors in the Atlanta Public School District we value the contribution a school facility can make to the community it serves and the importance of designing it to be an integral part of the community.

As such, we support centrally locating the new North Atlanta High School within the neighborhoods and communities it serves rather than on the outskirts of the school district isolated from our community.

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The Centrally Locate New North Atlanta High School petition to Atlanta Board of Education was written by Kevin McCauley and is in the category Education at GoPetition.