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SUMMARY OF PUBLIC COMMENTS CONCERNING OPTIONS TO BALANCE UTILIZATION OF APS FACILITIES AND ACCOMMODATE FORECASTED CHANGES IN STUDENT ENROLLMENT

Introduction The following sections summarize public comments received following four days of community meetings held from November 28 to December 1, 2011. At those meetings the consultant team presented four options to balance current enrollment and accommodate forecasted 10-year enrollment shifts at APS schools. Maps illustrating those options, copies of presentations made at the community meetings and narrative summaries of the options were posted on the APS web site and made available for the public to review prior to making comments. (These materials are incorporated herein by reference.) Persons wishing to comment on the alternatives were given the option of either responding to an on-line survey or filling out a paper questionnaire. Residents were also able to submit comments and questions to the consultant team via e-mail or telephone.

Several hundred e-mails and many phone calls were received during the month of December and the consultant team spent many hours over this period reviewing public comments and answering inquiries. These comments were considered during the process of narrowing the initial four concepts to two implementation Options A and B (the revised Options), which will be presented at a second round of community meetings scheduled from January 30 through February 2, 2012. Many of the comments and concerns gathered through the public input process expressed consistent themes repeated by dozens and in some cases hundreds of respondents. A large majority of these themes were fully or partially incorporated into the revised Options A and B. Comments which could not be incorporated were typically due to lack of feasibility, direct conflict with other equally valid comments or other considerations which made it very difficult or impossible to accommodate within the revised Options.

The primary purpose of this memo is to summarize the general content of input received via the on-line and paper comment forms. The consultants have also kept a log of e-mails received. Many of those e- mails echo responses provided on the comment forms. Other e-mails contained extensive information on the characteristics of existing neighborhoods, transportation issues impacting redistricting options, physical attributes of schools and other relevant factors. The consultant team is grateful to the many residents and groups who spent significant time preparing useful information and thoughtful insights which were very helpful. We reviewed the very large volume of information received, considered that input and incorporated as much as was feasible when preparing the revised Options.

Response Data More than 8,200 comment forms were filled out on line or submitted in paper form. At least one comment was received from 54 of the 55 elementary attendance zones in the district. Another 666 respondents did not identify which attendance zone in which they lived or the specific areas of the School District they were commenting upon. Among comments where an attendance zone was identified, the largest number came from Springdale Park (1,011) and the fewest came from Venetian

ATLANTA PUBLIC SCHOOLS DRAFT: Page 2 CAPACITY/UTILIZATION STUDY 2011 Hills (no comments received). Included in the above totals were 168 comments submitted on Spanish language forms. The distribution of responses by SRT appears in Figure 1.

Figure 1. Distribution of Returned Comment Forms by SRT Of the total comments received, 5,932 (74%) were T o ta l [1] % o f submitted on line and 2,271 were returned on paper forms. Are a Re sp o nse s T o ta l Of the paper forms returned, 566 or approximately 25% SRT 1 356 4.3% (including Spanish translation forms) either could not be SRT 2 443 5.4% read by the scanning software for various reasons or were SRT 3 4,204 51.2% SRT 4 2,719 33.1% turned in late. These 566 responses are not tabulated and SRT Not Identified 666 8.1% combined with the on-line results which are reported in TOTALS: 8,203 102.3% Figure 2.1 However, the consultants did separate the forms NOTE: which could not be tabulated electronically, including the [1] Some responses identify multiple attendance Spanish language forms, and reviewed those comments zones on a single form, which explains why the sum of the rows exceeds 100%. separately. Most of the “unreadable” forms or late submittals came from six attendance zones and the input provided was very consistent with other (tabulated) results received from those same zones. The consultants made every effort to review, document and consider all comments received through the public input process and the information presented below is representative of all input received.

Options Ranking A total of 7,687 responses were aggregated and analyzed with respect to preferences for Options 1 through 4, including responses which preferred none of the options and those which expressed no opinion. This information is summarized in Figure 2. Respondents were asked to rank each option on a scale of 1 to 4, with 1 indicating their most preferred and 4 indicating their least preferred alternative. Options with the smallest numeric average thus represent the most preferred alternative among those respondents with an opinion.

In some cases, respondents did rank all options, identifying only the option they would support and leaving the remainder blank. Others ranked one option first and the remainder with a “4” to indicate that they only supported one. As a result of these types of skewed responses, averages may not be truly representative across the entire sample and the differences between the options may not be a reliable indicator of relative preference or opposition. Yet despite the limitations of the data, Figure 2 illustrates that residents of the different SRT’s expressed significantly different ranking preferences.

1 Approximately 260 paper forms could not be read by the scanning software because they were submitted on poor quality copies of the original comment forms. Most of these copied forms appeared to come from the same source and were therefore isolated to a few schools. The Spanish translation forms were formatted differently, were not compatible with the tabulation software and had to be reviewed separately.

ATLANTA PUBLIC SCHOOLS DRAFT: Page 3 CAPACITY/UTILIZATION STUDY 2011 In each row the most preferred option is highlighted in red text. Preferred alternatives with a relatively low average number, (ie. below 2.0) suggest a fairly strong consensus within the SRT, while options with an average above 3.0 were clearly disliked among the majority of respondents.

Figure 2. Average Ranking of Options 1-4 by SRT [1] Elementary School Options Average Ranking: Elementary School Options [2] No ES Options % of Don't Know % of SRT Responses Option 1 Option 2 Option 3 Option 4 Preferred Total No Opinion Total SRT 1 254 1.77 1.56 2.79 3.03 78 30.7% 73 28.7% SRT 2 235 2.47 2.08 1.84 2.24 26 11.1% 22 9.4% SRT 3 4,041 1.94 2.54 2.46 2.74 1,492 36.9% 569 14.1% SRT 4 2,441 2.33 2.45 2.21 2.67 1,472 60.3% 498 20.4% Zone Not Identified 666 1.82 1.59 2.72 3.52 155 23.3% 45 6.8% Grand Total 7,637 2.02 2.34 2.43 2.80 3,223 42.2% 1,207 15.8% Middle School Options Average Ranking: Middle School Options [2] No MS Options % of Don't Know % of SRT Responses Option 1 Option 2 Option 3 Option 4 Preferred Total No Opinion Total SRT 1 254 2.16 2.26 1.98 2.57 82 32.3% 8 3.1% SRT 2 235 2.84 3.04 1.63 1.70 20 8.5% 24 10.2% SRT 3 4,041 2.34 2.20 2.27 2.65 1,600 39.6% 155 3.8% SRT 4 2,441 2.36 2.83 2.13 2.39 1,459 59.8% 103 4.2% Zone Not Identified 666 2.11 2.55 2.15 2.70 179 26.9% 191 28.7% Grand Total 7,637 2.34 2.42 2.19 2.54 3,340 43.7% 481 6.3% High School Options Average Ranking: High School Options [2] No HS Options % of Don't Know % of SRT Responses Option 1 Option 2 Option 3 Option 4 Preferred Total No Opinion Total SRT 1 254 2.13 1.82 2.20 2.48 83 32.7% 12 4.7% SRT 2 235 3.05 3.42 3.07 3.11 21 8.9% 26 11.1% SRT 3 4,041 2.21 1.90 2.64 2.73 1,538 38.1% 172 4.3% SRT 4 2,441 2.41 2.82 2.17 2.54 1,417 58.0% 149 6.1% Zone Not Identified 666 1.98 2.27 2.36 2.78 167 25.1% 196 29.4% Grand Total 7,637 2.26 2.18 2.49 2.68 3,226 42.2% 555 7.3% NOTES: [1] Analysis results exclude forms which could not be run through the tabulation software. [2] "Average" rankings represent the composite average of all persons ranking options on a scale of 1 to 4, with 1 indicating the most preferred. Numbers highlighted in red text represent the highent ranking option in each SRT.

Among the elementary school options (those expressing a preference), Option 2 was preferred in SRT 1 and among persons who did not identify their attendance zone. SRT 2 residents tended to favor Option 2, SRT 3 residents Option 1 and SRT 4 residents Option 3. Elementary school Option 4 ranked either last or close to last in all parts of the District. The relative high average score associated with SRT 4’s preferred option (2.2) suggests that there was little consensus within that SRT which strongly favored any of the options presented. Similar response patterns are shown in Figure 2 for middle and high school attendance zones.

ATLANTA PUBLIC SCHOOLS DRAFT: Page 4 CAPACITY/UTILIZATION STUDY 2011 Figure 2 also shows that a relatively high percentage of respondents chose not to rank the options at all, indicating that they preferred “none of the above” or did not have enough information to answer the question. More than 42% of all respondents preferred none of the options at all three school levels. Another 16% “didn’t know” or had no opinion regarding the elementary school options, while a smaller percentage (6% to 7%) had no opinion concerning the middle and high school options. From the written comments it appeared that several respondents were confused by the way the on-line form was structured (these issues were later corrected) and in some cases “don’t know” actually meant that no option was preferred.

Among the four elementary school options, SRT 4 expressed the strongest dislike with more than 60% expressing “no option preferred.” More than 37% of SRT 3 and 31% of SRT 1 respondents respectively preferred no options, compared to a smaller percentage (11%) of SRT 2 responders. SRT 1 and SRT 4 responses also had a significantly higher percentage (above 20%) of persons who “didn’t know” or had no opinion regarding which elementary school option they preferred. The middle and high school options also had majority opposition in SRT 4 with just below 60% preferring no options in each case. When the survey results are isolated for individual attendance zones, the pattern of responses clearly indicates residents preferred options that maintained the status quo in nearly all cases over options which proposed changes of any kind.

Spanish Comment Forms Figure 3 Distribution of Spanish Comment Forms by School The comment forms were translated into Spanish and a T o ta l [1] % o f T o ta l total of 168 were collected and provided to the consultants. Are a Re sp o nse s Co mme nts These forms were confined to six schools identified in Humphries 20 13.5% Figure 3. As shown, more than 85 percent of all comments Hill-Hope 1 0.7% Bolton Academy 41 27.7% were collected from Garden Hills and Bolton Academy. Garden Hills 87 58.8% There appeared to be no significant difference between the Rivers 5 3.4% opinions of Hispanic respondents and those of the Towns 14 9.5% community at large. Comments that were provided TOTALS: 148 100.0% expressed support for keeping neighborhood schools open. In the case of Bolton Academy and Humphries, the vast majority of Hispanic respondents indicated No Option Preferred.

Synopsis of Written Comments The volume of comments provided by residents was massive, including more than 4,000 on-line responses and 1,200 paper forms containing one of more written comments. More than 800 e-mails were also received and reviewed during the month of December. Most of these comments elaborate upon why certain options were supported or opposed, expressed support for schools that were identified for closure in one or more options, suggested other alternatives not considered, raised transportation concerns, expressed concern over the decision making process, etc. or provided information about neighborhoods or neighborhood schools. As expected, the vast majority of comments were generated

ATLANTA PUBLIC SCHOOLS DRAFT: Page 5 CAPACITY/UTILIZATION STUDY 2011 from attendance zones where significant changes were proposed under one or more options. Few comments were received from areas of the District which were largely left unchanged.

Because the on-line survey comments can be sorted, searched for key words and counted, the synopsis provided on the following pages focuses only on the on-line results. Comments included on the paper forms were scanned and recorded as image files, which made tabulation and sorting much more difficult. All of the comments supplied on written forms were collected and reviewed but are not counted within the tabulations appearing below.

In attendance zones where there were large numbers of both paper and on-line responses, there was virtually no difference in the types of issues and nature of concerns expressed by users of the different input methods. In other attendance zones the number of paper forms submitted greatly exceeded the on- line results. Comments from those attendance zones typically expressed support for their local schools, opposed school closures or the creation of primary K-2/3-5 centers. Written comments expressed support for Centennial Place, Hope-Hill, Adamsville, Miles, East Lake, Cook, Whitefoord, Towns, Toomer, Capitol View, Burgess Peterson, Humphries and Coan MS. Counts of the written paper comments are not included in the following summary but they were duly noted by the consultants when developing the two implementation Options.

The following tables provide a summary of the types of on-line comments provided for elementary, middle and high school options, as well as the “general or other” comment box included on the form. The numbers associated with each subject reflect the number of submitted comments that relate to the general subject matter described. In some cases individual comments addressed multiple subjects and can be reflected on more than one line. In most but not all cases, opinions addressing a particular issue were consistent. There were some instances where respondents addressed the same issue but expressed opposite points of view.

Comments are organized by SRT plus a “district –wide” category for comments which refer to subjects (i.e. impacts on property values) that were repeated in more than one SRT or attendance zone. In compiling this list the consultants attempted to be as thorough as possible in identifying and reporting all major recurring themes. The unintentional omission of any subject matter in this memo does not mean that those comments were not seen or considered by the consultant team prior to completing the revised implementation options.

Following the synopsis of comments, we have provided a random list of individual comments which are representative of the recurring issues raised by respondents. This list is intended to provide insight into the nature and range of issues raised by respondents. The inclusion, omission or order of individual comments should not be interpreted in any way as an endorsement of one viewpoint over others.

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Summary of Recurring Elementary School Comments Number of SRT Comments General Subject Matter Addressed District-wide 270 Comments related to not changing IB track schools 216 Comments related to proposed primary center concepts at various locations 100 Do not impact neighborhoods (again) which have recenty been redistricted 143 References to allowing/preventing children to walk to school due to zone changes 33 References to options having negative impacts on property values

SRT 1 81 Support Beecher Hills 42 Support Miles/(Miles /Adamsville primary center: 3 favor/3 oppose) 20 Support Centennial Place 5 Support Adamsville

SRT 2 3 Support Humphries/important to Hispanic Population 3 General opposition to closing schools/too many closures in SRT 2 1 Support Benteen

SRT 3 300 Don’t split SPARK zone, no primary center, expand SPARK to accommodate growth 267 Expand Mary Lin/keep attendance zone together 140 Don't split Morningside/Keep in Inman/Grady cluster 90 Support East Lake/enlarge attendance zone to increase enrollment rather than close school 54 Negative impacts on Grant Park and Inman Park Neighborhoods 44 Oppose splitting Inman Park from Lin Attendance zone 41 Support Toomer 26 Comments related to negative impacts on Old Fourth Ward, busing students out of the area 20 Keep Kirkwood neighborhood together 19 Support Parkside/oppose Primary Center 10 Support Whitefoord 11 Support Burgess-Peterson

SRT 4 198 Don’t zone neighborhoods out of Bolton (Whittier Mill Village, Vinings, Riverside & Parkview) 150 Keep my neighborhood in Morris Brandon attendance zone 129 Minimal redistricting is needed within SRT 4 95 Keep Sarah Smith attendance zone unchanged 86 Keep Pine Hills in Sarah Smith 70 Keep Loring Heights part of E Rivers 45 Oppose redefining Garden Hills attendance zone 43 Support Towns Elementary School, support Option 1 40 Fernleaf neighborhood as been previously redistricted 39 Underwood Hills shouldn't be zoned to Bolton Academy 29 Ridgewood Heights shouldn't be zoned to Bolton Academy 26 Keep Argonne Forest neighborhood in Brandonattendance zone 22 Want to stay in E. Rivers (no neighborhood identified) 6 Keep Berkely Park neighborhood in East Rivers attendance zone

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Summary of Recurring Middle School Comments Number of SRT Comments General Subject Matter Addressed District-wide 32 Oppose proposed location of the Midtown MS or a new middle school is not needed 25 References to transportation issues 16 Favor K-8 concept 64 Consider impacts on IB certified schools

SRT 1 & 2 84 Support MLK Middle School

SRT 3 279 Keep neighborhoods in the Inman MS attendance zone or suggestions concerning which neighbor- hoods should be redistricted to other zones to address Inman overcrowding 109 Support Coan MS, expand zone, suggest neighborhoods to be redistricted to Coan 86 Don't split Morningside/Virginia Highlands 31 Negative impacts on Inman Park/Grant Park neighborhoods 25 Comments related to negative impacts on Old Fourth Ward 21 Re-use the closed Howard or Walden Schools to relieve overcrowding 13 Crossing DeKalb Avenue (differing views expressed on whether it should be an issue) 11 Keep Kirkwood neighborhood together

SRT 4 270 Comments related to future Sutton Middle School, opposing 9th grade academy, address Sutton over-crowding, keep as a middle school, etc.

Summary of Recurring High School Comments Number of SRT Comments General Subject Matter Addressed SRT 3 306 References to keeping neighborhoods in the Grady Cluster 170 Excessive commuting distance/time/cost from Morningside to new NAHS 35 Reduce/eliminate out of zone transfers 25 BeltLine links Old Fouth Ward to Grady HS

SRT 4 181 Oppose 9th grade academy at Sutton, enlarge new NAHS to accommodate grades 9-12

Summary of Recurring General Comments Number of Comments General Subject Matter Addressed District-wide 47 References to rezoning to under-performing Schools 34 Impacts on property values 20 Curriculum considerations 40 References to process (too fast, slow down, transparency, logic, guiding principles, etc.)

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SRT Representative Sample of Individual Comments SRT 1 Option 2 allows Beecher Hills to remain open and be zoned for more students. This would give more students the opportunity to be educated in a building with high parent and community support and receive instruction using the International Baccaluarate Framework. Beecher has a tradition of high student achievement and has high value added data which means we are working with all students to make sure they achieve and grow. Beecher Hills has established partnerships with businesses and organizations that are committed to the work we do. Beecher Hills draws students from all areas of the city because of the way we educate the whole child and because of the curriclum we offer, the teachers and administrative team and the extra curricular activities we provided. The Primary Intermediate Campus idea is good one, but we need to be careful to schools close together. I believe the Adamsville/Miles combo is good because geographically they are extremely close. Miles has been the best school my son has attended, I moved in the APS district for my son to get a better education because I felt they have a better curriculum, my son went from not knowing much of anything, to knowing all his letters, numbers, adding and subtracting, reading, so much in so little time. He is an only child and have met so many new friends that he really likes, I would not want my son to be placed in another school or different district. I really love Atlanta public schools how they already are. Please just let the kids be happy. Adamsville Elem. stands as a community school. A school that has serviced the community a number of years and has had generations of families that attended. I think the parents would be deeply sadden and inconvenienced if closing takes place. This would hinder the community as well. Adamsville stands right next to the public park which services the community. Most of our children who attend Adamsville participate in activities at the park. Closing would be a disservice to our children as well as the Adamsville Community. The community itself would fall. This would not be something the community wants to see happen. It's about the children and the community that makes it possible for the children to attend Adamsville. This is what we need to consider. M. L. King Middle School has long served as a cornerstone of this community. There was an agreement between the Summerhill Community, The Capitol Homes Community, APS and the Atlanta Parks and Recreation department in which the community agreed to a plan where instead of a Community Center which included a recreation center, a pool, a multi use center and a school, the community agreed to a plan where we would receive recreational services and have the uses of a pool both in school and during recreational hours.

SRT 2 I do not see the reason why Humphries E.S should be closed. It is full, with a big number of students. Secondly, I see that the demographic study without a doubt has disregarded the big number of Hispanic population present in the zone as well as other communities. Humphries elementary school is a school with many years in the community and with a high importance for that area of Atlanta. The demographic study is not accurate and is harming a significant population. Too many schools are being closed on the southside of the city. This will result in significant transition for the students and their families into areas and schools that families may not prefer. In addition these families moved into specified areas because of certain schools. Specifically in relation to Benteen - no alternative options outside of closing where presented. Benteen has been fully renovated and expanded within the past 10 years. It is techology ready with numerous technological resources. Considering it for a k-2 or 3-5 student to meet its occupancy is another option and possible good utilization of space. Having no option other than closing is frankly - unacceptable, as well as unfair.

I am not a fan of either option for the middle schools. It is hard to conceive why you would recommend closing MLKing Middle School and Parks Middle School when there are other middle schools that have a lower enrollment and a lower % utilization (.i.e. Coan Middle and Kennedy Middle School). Additionally, it does not appear to be financially responsible to build a new Midtown middle school to alleviate overcrowing. Has anyone considered the Walden Middle School Building? Inman Middle School is less than 3 miles from the Walden building and could be used to alleviate overcrowding. The attendance zones for Sutton, Inman, and Walden can be redrawn to evenly distribute students between the 3 campuses. Utilization of the Walden Building would remove the necessity of having to move Sutton Middle Schoolto the North Atlanta Building. Finally, is it possible to simply make the old North Atlanta Building a middle school and keep Sutton in their current building?

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SRT Representative Sample of Individual Comments SRT 3 We request to remain at Centennial because: (1) the school achieves good results (2) our children are doing well here (3) it is an urban school that works

1. The Inman Park community in its entirety will merge with the Hill-Hope community. There is a historical precedent for this merger, for in the past Old Fourth Ward and Morningside once shared a school community. 2. The Lake Claire and Candler Park communities would remain at Mary Lin. 3. Should East Lake Elementary close, all of East Lake and all of Kirkwood would merge at Toomer. East Lake is opposed to being rezoned across I-20 for elementary school. 4. East Lake is opposed to a 12 million dollar addition to Mary Lin as is would not address the issue of overcrowding over the next 10 years. Our elementary school plan would alleviate overcrowding at Mary Lin elementary and eliminate the need for a $12 million expansion to Mary Lin. Our plan would also alleviate under enrollment at Hill-Hope and Toomer while removing the operational and staffing costs associated with an under- enrolled school freeing up APS funds. In addition, our plan keeps neighborhood communities together, maintains walkability and keeps transportation costs and distance traveled at a minimum, all of which are concerns expressed by many parents and community members and APS. Our plan would also alleviate under enrollment at Hill-Hope and Toomer while reoving the operational and staffing costs associated with an under-enrolled school - freeing up APS funds. In addition, our plan keeps neighborhood communities together, maintains walkability and keeps transportation costs and distance traveled at a minimum.

Parkside Elementary School is a high performing, in demand community school and that is exemplified by a tremendous amount of transfer students (more than any other in the district) coming into the school. The neighborhood that houses Parkside, Grant Park, has a strong group of parents who attend charter school, which will of course pull from its numbers and reflect in your study. That should not keep you from believing that Parkside will ever dcrease in numbers. 2 years ago, APS told our principal that we would need trailers to house our 600+ students. When the "gates" are left open and transfers are allowed in, there is always and has always (over the past 10 years) been a full house at Parkside representing 80-100+% capacity. Parkside is a part of the King to Jackson feeder pattern and is poised to become the first IB elementary option not located in north or southwest Atlanta. The split option shown in option 2 does not work for our school community. Our STEM programs thrive because of our instructors who teach high level science and math concepts on every grade level. We were the first 21st Century school of the district, housing advanced technology in every classroom. In this budget climate we will not be able to replicate that in another facility (COOK) that currently has a fraction of the same technology. We are a school of working parents, unable to pick up children at multiple locations when we can barely make it to aftershcool pick up for one. And finally, we have award winning activities like our 100 voice choir, band, strings, robotics team, chess club, rocket building club, dance team and handbell choir that can ONLY thrive when children are groomed beginning in 1st grade and allowed to continue and build the groups thru 5th grade. The Grant Park community is FINALLY, after TEN YEARS, taking a chance on our school. Our Pre-K classes (we have 3) are filled with neighborhood children. Please do not destroy our new found sense of community and our stellar parent volunteer base by making the school K-2/3-5. It simply is not a viable option for Parkside Elemenary.

"I do not fully support any of the redistricting maps as currently proposed. I chose option 1 because it maintains the SPARK community and does not create a split primary school model. We encourage the demographers to increase SPARK's student capacity through the expansion of our school. We encourage APS to create maps that reflect this expanded capacity and honors the cohesiveness of our community." Reynoldstown supports the position drafted in the Cabbagetown Position paper. Zoning neighborhoods along the Memorial Drive corridor, including Grant Park, Ormewood Park, Reynoldstown and Cabbagetown together at Parkside Elementary will create a cohesive district with strong neighborhood support and parental involvement. Strongly support keeping the three neighborhoods of Candler Park, Lake Claire and Inman Park together at Mary Lin Elementary. These “sister neighborhoods” are close geographically, historically and culturally, and are stronger together than the sum of their parts. Mary Lin is a true neighborhood school, and we oppose any plan that would split neighborhoods or this larger community. Strongly support keeping Mary Lin as a K-5 school. This is essential to continuing Mary Lin’s record of academic success, keeping students in their community and close to their homes, allowing walkability, insuring transportation safety, and providing a consistent and nurturing elementary experience for our kids. Strongly oppose any option that turns Mary Lin into a K-2 / 3-5 “grade center concept.” We believe that our elementary age kids should remain in the community, and have a consistent school experience in these early years.

Agree that Burgess, Whitefoord, Toomer and East Lake should be considered as a group for consolidation/closing as they are all under enrolled and the city limits, Moreland Ave and Dekalb Ave make logical boundaries. The Burgess facility is clearly superior and closing this school makes no sense at all. I'm not sold on the split Elementary concept in general and would need to see more evidence that it makes sense from an education standpoint and isn't just a way to preserve the "brand" of the most desirable schools (i.e. Sarah Smith). I don't understand how the enrollment numbers work in Option 4. If Burgess, East Lake and half of Toomer are combined don't the projected enrollments overburden the Burgess facility? I do think the combination of these neighborhoods has the best potential to create a good group of like minded involved and active parents with a single school to focus on but do not think over enrolling the school is a good trade off. If there is something I am missing and the enrollment numbers would be at the 80 percent capacity goal, I would rank Option 4 first.

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Since the Lin population may reach 780 over the next ten years, I suggest one of two options: 1) that the Lin addition be bigger, to accommodate approximately 250 students; or 2) a 5/6 or 6 academy using existing APS assets. Most importantly, I do NOT support any changes that would remove Lake Claire from Mary Lin --- walkability and proximity define a neighborhood and its school, and Dekalb Ave is a major, dangerous throughfare that would prevent all elementary students from walking or would have horrendous effects on Dekalb traffic. Finally, while I do not support 3-5 academies to split Lin, I am willing to send them to a 5/6 academy in order to keep them at Lin as long as SRT 3 possible.

Closing schools seems to be a short sighted and reactionary response to this study, and we are against closing any facility, rather APS should adopt adaptive reuse to their facilites. The Primary/Secondary elementary school model is not acceptable, and only serves the purpose to save the District money. There has been no research showing academic enhancements to students in this model. Parkside Elementary has seen a surge in parental involvement and student performance in recent years. Consolidating outside communities into Parkside’s community seeks to sidetrack the recent advances at school and inject a population of students from traditionally low performing schools, with low parental involvement. it can be theorized that parental involvement is the most vital component to a successful school; on par or ahead of staff, facilities, etc. Involved parents equates to support both physically and financially to the school, higher PTA revenues, teacher support, and more opportunities for school to pursue grants, alternative curriculum, physical improvements (gardens, murals, etc), and general school improvements that enhance student life, staff life, and administrative life, thereby making for a warmer, calmer, consistent, more balanced environment where students are encouraged to flourish. Any proposal that decreases per capita involvement should be seen as extremely detrimental to the health of the school. I believe the demographers disregarded their own stated criteria when presenting new zoning options for the Morningside Elementary School (MES) zone. As a result, all four options involve busing our students, many of whom walk to school regularly, several miles across town. I reject all four options as unacceptable. Busing children from a few streets in a neighborhood school zone to another school is unacceptable and wasteful of our tax dollars. It reduces community cohesiveness and removes children from the public school system as their parents choose better options.

As a parent, I strongly disagree with any option that splits the elementary school campus. Young children learn from the older kids, and older kids learn by teaching the younger ones, which is seen in the Montessori model. Less change equals more stability and time to grow academically and personally. I would like to keep our neighborhoods intact to keep our kids in the neighborhood and walkable, and maintain the strong school us family have worked hard to build. Mary Lin is currently slated for 176 extra seats, but it makes me sense to go to 250 so we do not have another SPARK situation where our school is over-crowded by the time the addition is completed. I want to keep the current boundaries for Mary Lin intact, so Candler Park, Lake Claire, and Inman Park communities stay together. I would also like to have the much needed expansion and renovation for Mary Lin. I would like to keep Mary Lin at Inman Middle School and Grady High School. For these reasons, I have chosen Option #3 as my first choice. I also chose Option #1 last since it removes Inman Park from Mary Lin. But I am against pairing Mary Lin with any other elementary school though and would like Mary Lin to remain a K-5 school.

Our kids and parents at Springdale Park should not be forced to undergo another major upheaval - we just went through this three years ago, and worked extremely hard to build a school from scratch. Our kids deserve some stability. Do not divide the MES zoned neighborhoods by sending small groups of streets to schools north of the neighborhood (requiring busing). The number of children from these smaller streets is insignificant, so why take them out of their neighborhood? Keep the neighborhood together. APS has precious few high performing schools with active parent involvement. Both Springdale Park and Morningside are on this list. We moved to Springdale Park school zone relying on the fact that our children can go to this wonderful school. We live within walking distance. The school is brand new and is very high performing. It is not overcrowded. The fact that APS would consider destroying one of its superstar schools by sending half the students to one of its lower performing schools is shocking. APS is a joke. Having been an APS parent for many years, I have been extremely disappointed with the decision making of APS. The parents of SPARK students who can afford it will flee to the private schools, and SPARK will lose its active parent support. I do not want my rising 4th grader at Hope. I didn’t move to the Hope school district. Plus I have a rising kindergartener who will then go to a different school than her brother. I am an active volunteer and regularly donate both time and money to the schools. I support APS teachers who work so hard. But I am already knocking on doors at private schools. I cannot believe this is even up for consideration.

Our family (Old Fourth Ward residents within walking distance of Hope-Hill Elementary) opposes Option 1 because it would require that students spend significant time on the bus to travel to middle and high schools outside their neighborhood. It also destroys the valuable diversity that currently exists at Grady and Inman Middle School, as students of color will then be clustered in south side schools. We support Options 2-4 because they allow our kids to go to school in (or closer to) our neighborhood all the way through. We could also use the Freedom Park path to bike/ walk to either of Hope-Hill, Mary Lin, and SPARK, which would give our daughter exercise at the beginning and end of her school day. We are supporters of public education, but feel that if Option 1 were chosen, we would think very seriously about sending our daughter and any subsequent children we are blessed to have to private school. The Virginia Highlands/Morningside community has already been split up in recent years tearing apart the neighborhood and segregating a close-knit community by separating families and friends who were once in class together. We have already gone through this and will not tolerate an even smaller dissection of our neighborhood where our children are forced to leave their own neighborhood to be educated outside of their home community when there is a wonderful school that they have grown up in only blocks away from their homes. The community of Poncey-Highland strongly desires to remain a part of the Springdale Park Elementary School (SPARK) district, while remaining in the school districts for Inman Middle School and Grady High School. We also wish that all grades, K – 5, remain at the current SPARK location, as we believe this decision promotes families being able to stay together.

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SRT 3 Oppose Option #1: Busing Old Fourth Ward students to the south side of I-20 segregates the Grady cluster by race and economic class. The Old Fourth Ward is geographically separated from the Maynard Jackson cluster by the CSX rail line, Memorial Drive and I-20 Support Options #2-4: Combination of Lin or Springdale Park with Hope-Hill makes the most economic and logistic sense for the northeast sector and ends the segregation of the Old Fourth Ward student population from its sister neighborhoods in northeast Atlanta The Freedom Parkway path provides pedestrian and non-vehicular traffic options from the Old Fourth Ward to Mary Lin. Whitefoord is a true community school. 100% of the students walk to school. The partnership with the Zeist Foundation and The Marriott. The location of the Whitefoord Community Program in the school as well as the Whitefoord Clinic housed in the school. Whitefoor has the highest enrollment of East Lake and Toomer. The recent multi million dollar renovations. Neither Springdale nor Mary Lin can be combined with Hill/Hope. It would cause mass defections, lower property values, and create even more dissatisfaction with APS Administration. Instead, expand Lin and expand Spark on the back end of the property that will not run afoul of Druid Hills by-laws. My husband and I have two toddler aged children, we live in the Hill-Hope elementary area and have been researching private schools since we bought our home. Option 1 would leave us in the same position. Options 2-4 give us the opportunity to have our children attend schools with a better performance record using the taxes we already pay. In addition, those options allow us to better partner with our neighborhoods and neighborhood resources putting our time and money where we live. Based on your demography strategies, you are offering options and not adhering to the identified strategies of 1)keeeping neighborhoods intact; 2) maintaing contiguous feeder areas, 3) Using major geographic features as boundaries 4) Transportation Costs. All 4 options of re-zoning MES to a "new" middle school negate all of this criteria. Why would we transport kids 3-4 miles to a new school completely out of our neighborhood, over the highway when we can now walk to Inman Middle School? I like the idea of adding a new elementary above Morningside. This will absorb future growth in the area and help keep the Morningside attendance small and local to the school. Option-4 is better because it maintains current neighborhood northern boundaries. Option-3 is ok for our family but doesn't seem fair for families who live in Morningside but cannot attend their closest school. I don't believe that the splitting of grade levels between elementary schools is a sensible solution. It especially does not make sense for parents that have children in more than one grade. To coordinate parent/teacher meetings, programs, dropping off the children, etc would be a much more cumbersome process. If there are enrollment issues, I think the Board should review the schools in question, and determine if any of those buildings should be closed. Depending on the age of the building, location, and other factors, there may be some combination of low enrollment schools, but not splitting of grade levels. I live in Kirkwood and am strongly opposed to Option 4. That option would divide the neighborhood in half and would prevent Kirkwood residents from attending Toomer, even those residents who live nearby (literally across the street from the school) and who have helped improve the school in recent years. Dividing Kirkwood in this manner would create serious animosity among neighbors and could very likely destroy the neighborhood. Whatever scenario APS chooses regarding rezoning of Toomer, it should treat Kirkwood as a single neighborhood. I preferred option 2 because it would combine the resources of the two most successful schools in the area (Toomer and Burgess Peterson) and would remove the current arbitrary elementary school district lines (for example, under the current scheme, parts of Kirkwood are zoned to Whitefoord rather than Toomer). Option 2 would bring residents of Edgewood, Kirkwood, East Lake, and East Atlanta together, rather than dividing them. Options 1 and 3 are less desirable since they maintain the arbitrary division between neighborhoods, but if one of those is implemented, it should keep Burgess Peterson open, since it would be extraordinarily wasteful to close a new facility. Burgess-Peterson has increasing community involvement, it has a good academic record and was not implicated in any of the recent APS cheating scandals. It was recognized by the Government of the United States and First Lady as a school of leadership and accomplishment. The school building itself is fairly new, and so the systems are more efficient. Staff and volunteers at the school have obtained grants in the past and will be the recipient of grant funds for 2012.

Please consider a Pre-K and K center to serve all the over-enrolled schools (ML, Spark, maybe MES). The K center could be housed in Toomer perhaps and combined with Toomers current preK and K program. This would remove K from Mary Lin (about 120 kids). A K pullout along with the proposed expansion to ML would allow ML to continue to serve it's current zone, albeit a little tight on space, but doable. It is acceptable to me to have 2 or 3 trailers at ML, if they are strategically used and in good condition, as the price of keeping the zone together. A K pullout of Mary Lin would buy us several more years and could utilize the space available at Toomer (or other school with excess space). Such a K center could also help with crowding at SPARK. Other K programs could also be moved to a K center if it helps with consolidation/closing, etc. I have positive thoughts about all of the options except for option #1 or no changes at all. Young couples and families will not move into the area with intentions of staying and sending their children to Hope Elementary under those scenarios. Options 2, 3 or 4 will immediately draw more families into the O4W further improving Hope while bringing stability and safety. This improves the values of properties and increases the revenue to the city enabling future improvements to existing schools and the building of new schools years from now. Option #1 or no changes will stifle growth in the area of the O4W, the city and the school system will not have improved. Those choices might even be detrimental to the system.

1. Many neighborhoods are suggesting that Mary Lin should move to Coan to relieve overcrowding at Inman. This is not feasible. The rail yard and marta tracks create a SIGNIFICANT traffic issue. There is a concrete wall that runs along the railroad tracks for the entire length of the Mary Lin district, and with only three ways to cross over or under the tracks, taking kids to school -- even if bussed -- would create tremendous traffic problems. The road that runs along the tracks, Dekalb Avenue, has a reversible middle lane (which is known as the suicide lane because of its propensity for accidents, people driving the wrong way, people using it as a turn lane, etc.), and there is only one sidewalk on the street, and it is not continuous. This is not a walkable situation to anyone on the north side of the rail yards, and even via bussing, is extremely treacherous. 2. The belt line, which is in process and slated to be completed soon, will create a walkable, bike able path directly from the Mary Lin district to Inman and Grady. Unlike the railroad tracks, which create extreme danger to our kids, a belt line path is a safe way to ensure a neighborhood school feel. 3. Please keep our current Grady cluster intact. We've worked very hard to make it a great public school feeder system for our kids, and a shining star in the APS system. Separating it would be a shame. Grady is the natural transition from Inman given its proximity. Excluding transfers to the school would make the population and ratios legal and manageable. The only options acceptable for Morningside are those that keep Morningside at Grady. Sending Morningside 10 miles north to NAHS is environmentally, educationally, and fiscally irresponsible: •The high costs of long distance busing, sustained year after year, will be a drain on APS's already tight budget. •The distance creates unnecessary and unreasonable burdens on families and children. •Educational opportunities for our children will be limited. Participating in before and after school activities, athletics, tutorials, etc will be contingent upon a family's ability to drive 20 miles round trip in rush hour traffic to drop off and pick up their children. •The distance creates a chasm that will effectively exclude Morningside parents and businesses from full participation and actively supporting the school. • No other APS students are asked to commute 10 miles one way to school, and for good reason. •Please remove the NAHS options. Morningside students have an obvious better option--remaining at their neighborhood school. Morningside is one of the closest neighborhoods to Grady and should not be displaced. Keep Morningside at Inman and Grady.

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SRT 3 Use proximity in creating school zones: proximity supports vibrant local neighborhoods and is fiscally and environmentally responsible. Keep Morningside at Inman and Grady.

I am requesting that all 4 options are rejected and new ones be developed that allow students to go to schools that they are located the closest to. The Morningside/Virginia Highlands community is a very cohesive community. Allowing kids from Morningside to go on to Inman and Grady is an important part of that. Undoing this will degrade the quality of this community. In addition, these are the closest schools to the Morningside area. Moving the kids from Morningside to other schools would lead to lower levels of parent involvement in both the schools here and the schools where the students would be sent to. Parent involvement is an important part of school success, so the Atlanta Public Schools should be making decisions that work toward that, not against that. It's important to student performance and school performance overall. Furthermore, I want my children to feel a close connection to the neighborhood they are from and live in. Which would decrease if you start shipping kids all across the city. The entire profession of urban planning and sustainability is encouraging a movement towards making things more local, with shorter commute times. That is an important part of "smart communities". Scattering things far away is environmentally, socially and economically unsustainable, and decreases the livability of not only this community, but the whole city.

Note: APS' own demographic study indicates that there are 400+ out of zone students at Grady. This situation needs to be addressed and brought under control. No neighborhood should be redistricted out of Grady until the number of out of zone students is significantly reduced. The only options acceptable for Morningside are those that keep Morningside at Grady. Sending Morningside 10 miles north to NAHS is environmentally, educationally, and fiscally irresponsible: •The high costs of long distance busing, sustained year after year, will be a drain on APS's already tight budget. •The distance creates unnecessary and unreasonable burdens on families and children. •Educational opportunities for our children will be limited. Participating in before and after school activities, athletics, tutorials, etc will be contingent upon a family's ability to drive 20 miles round trip in rush hour traffic to drop off and pick up their children. •The distance creates a chasm that will effectively exclude Morningside parents and businesses from full participation and actively supporting the school. • No other APS students are asked to commute 10 miles one way to school, and for good reason. •Please remove the NAHS options. Morningside students have an obvious better option--remaining at their neighborhood school. Morningside is one of the closest neighborhoods to Grady and should not be displaced. Keep Morningside at Inman and Grady. Nobody south of Dekalb Ave should be zoned for Grady HS. The current inclusion of Kirkwood and most of East Lake in the Grady feeder while carefully excluding some low income housing developments in East Lake is criminal. I'm sorry to tell my Kirkwood neighbors this, but they don't live in Inman or Candler Park. They live on the Southside with the rest of us and their kids should go to Maynard Jackson HS. That said, welcome to MJ and lets get busy making this school the best it can be. Please keep Atlantic Station in the Inman Middle School district. We are much more connected to that area than to the Kennedy Middle School area. Also, putting Atlantic Station in the Kennedy Middle School district will lower our property values and decrease tax revenue for the city. The traditonal Inman cluster neighborhoods are those east of I-75/85, south of I-85 and north of DeKalb Avenue. Centennial Place should be allowed to go to North Atlanta HS (not Douglass). That and a 5/6 academy would leave plenty of room at Inman for all the traditional Inman Cluster neighborhoods.

The Beltline provides non-vehicular access from the Old Fourth Ward to Grady High School The Old Fourth Ward is geographically connected to Midtown and Inman Park but not to the Maynard Jackson cluster.

I do not like any of the 4 options. I do not understand why it is fiscally responsible for APS to build a brand new middle school pushing Morningside out of Inman Middle. Coan is severely under enrolled and will remain so after rezoning. IMO Mary Lin (Lake Clair & Candler Park) should shift down into Coan. The demographers said that they were observing natural boundaries, but Dekalb Ave. isn't a boundary especially since Mary Lin parents cross that boundary almost daily to shop at the Edgewood shopping center. Shifting Mary Lin to Coan would alleviate overcrowding at Inman and allow families who actually live in the Inman neighborhood (Morningside) to attend the middle school closest to their home. But they might not react well to being on the wrong side of the tracks (ie south of Dekalb Ave)? The Old Fourth Ward student population has been historically segregated from NE Atlanta neighborhoods in close proximity. Combining Hope-Hill with Mary Lin or Springdale Park makes the most sense in unifying the NE sector Beltline and Freedom Park neighborhoods, properly brings in students to underutilized (and excellent) Hope-Hill while still respecting the natural southern boundary of Decatur Street. The Old Fourth Ward is most naturally connected to these neighborhoods and should at long last be connected to Mary Lin or Springdale Park. Finally if these schools were combined, no charter school for this area would be needed or desired. Option one is unacceptable because it only continues the segregation patterns set up with the current district patterns. APS should seriously consider addressing the overcrowding at Mary Lin, Inman, and Grady by shifting students from Mary Lin south of Dekalb Ave and combining with the four under utilized elementary schools (Whitefoord, Toomer, East Lake, and Burgess Peterson), the under utilized middle school (Coan), and the under utilized high school (Maynard Jackson). I recognize that many families zoned to Mary Lin would strongly oppose such a change, and that there would be an extreme outcry over issues such as property values (never mind that the resulting schools would immediately be successful). But it is hard to justify expanding Mary Lin and building a new middle school to relieve Inman when there is so much nearby excess capacity.

Please model options with an annex building on the Inman to the maximum capacity available at that site. Some degree of overcrowding at Inman could be acceptable if it avoided a worse outcome. Please model a scenario of Spark, MES, and Lin at Inman without Centennial. What would be the peak impact on overcrowding of this scenario? Is overcrowding something that could be dealt with, with trailers or minor construction? It does not appear that a Lin to Coan solution is a politically feasible alternative so eliminating this option this should be added as a constraint to the model.

You must have students in SRT-3 cross DeKalb- it makes no sense to close all the elementary schools South of Dekalb,but 12 million dollars to add 176 seats to Mary Lin when Toomer is so close by. It makes absolutely no sense to spend $75-100 million to build a new middle school in Midtown when we have capacity at Coan and King. There is also land available in the Old Fourth Ward at the former Walden Middle School site. A new Midtown MIddle School is a WASTE of taxpayer dollars.

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SRT Representative Sample of Individual Comments SRT 4

The demographers who prepared these options are clearly not familiar with the alignment of neighborhoods in Atlanta. Option 4 creates an E. Rivers zone that ignores the alignment of neighborhoods on both the east and west sides of the Peachtree Road corridor. Peachtree Road is not a natural dividing line. Option 4 groups the Brookwood Hills neighborhood and other Buckhead neighborhoods along the east side ofPeachtree with neighborhoods far to the east and even crossing I-85. Because of access points and traffic flow issues, I-85 is a huge dividing line. Neighborhoods on the east and west sides of I-85 have little contact. People living in these neighborhoods attend different churches, shop ad different grocery stores, and participate in different sports leagues. In short, there is no sense of community crossing I-85, while there is a strong sense of community linking neighborhoods on the east and west sides of Peachtree Road. Additionally, Options 1 and 2 take Loring Heights out of the Buckhead cluster despite the fact that this neighborhood is strongly afiliated with Buckhead. Although it is across I-75, the access roads and natural traffic flow across Deering link this neighborhood to Brookwood Hills, Brookwood, and Collier Hills. Loring Heights belongs in the E. Rivers zone. The maps need to be redrawn to keep neighborhoods intact.

While none of the options are ideal, option 1 is especially bad because the Ridgewood Heights neighborhood is moved from the Morris Brandon to Bolton Academy. (Option 2 is almost as bad, as it moves the Fernleaf neighborhood out of Brandon.) Moving these neighborhoods is extremely problematic because Marietta Blvd is a more natural and logical boundary between school districts. (It is not clear to me why this is not the boundary in any of the plans.) Ridgewood Heights is within walking distance of Brandon Primary center, and children can walk (as can parents) to and from school on safe, sidewalked streets without worrying about the 18 wheelers on Marietta Blvd constantly passing by. MOreover, there is currently extensive community involvement in Morris Brandon. Moving Ridgewood Heights from Brandon to Bolton academy risks damaging this highly valuable social capital. It may damage Brandon by removing active parents and may not help Bolton as formerly active parents see little value or appreciation for their hard work and decide not to contribute at a new school. Moving these neighborhoods from Brandon to Bolton seems to violate some of the key tenets of the redistricting parameters--respecting "natural" boundaries (like Marietta Blvd) or keeping communities together (like Ridgewood Heights, Fernleaf, and Margaret Mitchell). According to the projections offered at the public meetings, Brandon is is not expected to suffer from overcrowding, but will be above the ideal of running at 80-90% of capacity. Because Brandon can accommodate its current and projected population with no or only modest expansion, there is little reason to change the current Brandon boundaries. Changes should be focused on schools with dramatic usage above or below capacity (e.g. E. Rivers and White, respectively). Finally, Ridgewood Heights has just recently been moved from Warren T. Jackson to Morris Brandon. It is unfair to resident and families to attend three different elementary schools in such a short period of time. Buckhead cluster of schools are all IB, many of the altelrnatives are not. Loring Heights has historically been connected with the Buckhead cluster of neighborhoods, and still is today, as evidenced by the following: (a) Loring Heights is located in Atlanta City Council District 8, along with other Buckhead neighborhoods; (b) Loring Heights is a member of the Buckhead Council of Neighborhoods; (c) Most real estate sites consider Loring Heights to be a Buckhead neighborhood Currently, one of the co-presidents and both co-vice presidents (rising to co-presidents next year) of E Rivers PTA are neighbors in Loring Heights, which shows our neighborhoods' committment to the school. I live in Loring Heights Our Neighborhood, Fernleaf, was recently redistricted from Jackson to Brandon two years ago. This is the 3rd school year in the new district and we still have problems with children in different schools within the same family. Please keep the boundary line as it currently is located at the train tracks. I do not think it is safe for my children to cross a 6 lane road at a 5 way interesection so he can ride his bike to school. I also do not think it makes sense to have school buses on the same road going to two different schools as this can cause confusion and is dangerous.

No student should be moved out of SRT 4, which is fully integrated IB program. No Brandon neighborhood (Fernleaf, et al) should be required to cross Marietta Blvd to get to Bolton. Bolton is a lesser school academically, and is a completely separate area/neighborhood from Fernleaf. Marietta Blvd. is a busy commercial corridor with trucks traveling to/from the CSX rail yards. Bradnon Primary should be turned into a K-5 with all Jackson, Brandon and Rivers areas west of I-75 going to PC. E. Rivers building should be built as large as possible on that site. Loring Heights, at the southern end of Rivers, should NOT, ever, under any circumstances be moved into Washington HS district. Smith capacity is understated by 176 seats which represent 8 new classrooms which were completed last year. With this added capacity, Smith does not need to be redistricted, it will never exceed capacity and will only get to 95% based on your forecasted numbers. Either a new elementary school, or a primary center for Garden Hills should be built somewhere in the Lindbergh area. There are none of the options that kept the Underwood Hills neighborhood community intact. 1. While the Underwood Hills neighborhood appears to be bordered by I-75, Defoor Ave, and Collier Rd, the neighborhood community actual expends to the North and East of these borders. Underwood Hills residents work, shop, and worship in the general direction of Peachtree Rd (toward Morris Brandon & E Rivers) - not West toward Bolton Academy. 2. Sending Underwood Hills children to Bolton Academy poses increased safety concerns due to the heavily industrial traffic on both Chattahoochee Rd & Marrietta Blvd. 3. Bolton Academy academic program and achievements are well below the level of E Rivers. 4. Bolton Academy failed 4 out of 5 objectives of the 2011 capacity study Please do not remove Argonne Forest from Morris Brandon. This is our neighborhood school and has been for over 50 years. My family chose this house in this neighborhood specifically to attend Morris Brandon - we paid a premium for the school district and continue to pay a premium with our property taxes each year. If you remove Argonne Forest from Morris Brandon, you will surely negatively impact our property value, which will in turn lower the amount of money we will pay the city in taxes. In addition, Morris Brandon is closer to us than other elementary schools nearby - Morris Brandon is less than 1 mile from my home; we are over 2 miles away from E. Rivers. Thirdly, APS has recognized that Morris Brandon is not over-capacity and will not be over-capacity in the future. Since you all have already secured budget for an addition to Morris Brandon, which will allow for even more growth, over-crowding is not an issue at Morris Brandon. Finally, you'd be asking our children to go to a school that has lower test scores than the school we intentionally planned to send our children to.

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SRT 4

I was unable to rank just one option, but I believe that option 2 for elementary schools (only elementary schools) is a decent option that would cause the least community and education upheaval. All of the remaining options are bad and will be detrimental to the Buckhead community and Atlanta public schools. Buckhead is a tight knit community, and one of the most active of its components is the Peachtree Hills community, which is currently districted to E Rivers Elementary. Parents and students enjoy that school and what it has to offer their students. They are able to participate with other community families, which has fostered the wonderful neighborhood and community relations. Removing Peachtree Hills from that school and splitting it from the rest of the Buckhead community would be detrimental. It would result in a mass exodus from the neighborhood, steeply declining property values, and likely an increase in criminal activity in the area due to increased rentals and less involved neighbors. There is no reason to remove Peachtree Hills from E Rivers, as the lines can clearly be drawn to include the neighborhood while still taking care of capacity issues (as seen in Option 2). Furthermore, the monies that APS is willing to unnecessarily spend to build a new elementary school could be spent to completely renovate the current E Rivers location, allowing it to house the additional students and keeping the redistricting "shake up" to a bare minimum. After everything that the economy has already put our community and housing values through, there is no need to cut it off completely, putting community families through even more suffering (both home value and education wise). All that being said, if the decision is made to build a new elementary school in Peachtree Hills (Note: I do not believe this is a good idea or necessary), I believe that APS should do all in its power to make sure that school enhances the Peachtree Hills community. The district lines should be drawn with the Buckhead community in mind. Other communities, such as Garden Hills, Peachtree Heights, Peachtree Battle and Brookwood Heights should be contemplated, as they are our neighbors and longtime community counterparts. Furthermore, a new school should be built with the environment of Peachtree Hills in mind (removing as few trees as possible, considering the overwhelming traffic concerns, building the structure to compliment the neighborhood, providing sidewalks within the neighborhood, allowing a buffer between the school and neighboring homes, etc). Additionally, the worst thing that APS could do with regard to ALL options is split the Peachtree Hills community. We are a special, firmly bound community that must remain together. Pitting neighbors against one another based on school lines would be cruel and again result in steeply declining property values, meaning steeply declining taxes for the government to collect. We strongly feel 'Pine Hills' Neighborhood should remain in the Sara Smith School District. Please use the 'SPLOSAT' funds to create the necessary infrastructure at Sara Smith so critically needed to support & accomodate the surrounding neighborhoods, inclusive with 'Pine Hills'.

Sending the families on the other side of E. Wesley out of our school district is unacceptable. It essentially splits the neighborhood in half, and furthermore, the children who would be "districted out" can WALK to school through the Rumson Road walkway! Sending them to another school would mean transporting them by bus. Save the money!! Let the kids walk to school the old-fashioned way!! We in Garden Hills have the BEST situation and LOVE our neighborhood school. Of no less importance is the fact that Garden Hills Elementary faces an up-hill battle competing with the two private schools in our neighborhood: Atlanta International and Christ the King. For years, our PTA has worked very hard to increase neighborhood enrollment in GHES. Because of our school's large Hispanic population (and the fact that we're a Title I facility) many families in the Garden Hills neighborhood have dismissed out of hand the possibility of sending their children based on a mistaken belief that the school would not serve the needs of the children from our neighborhood. In the recent past, we have seen an upswing in "neighborhood" enrollment and many of those families are the ones who are now being redistricted. To lose half of the Garden Hills neighborhood would have a devastating effect on our school. And another thing! It is completely absurd to remove the south side of E. Wesley students WHO CAN WALK TO SCHOOL, to be able to include the neighborhood of Pine Hills, who would have to be bused in. Where is the sense?????

While we realize that we have several schools that are at or near capacity, we feel that we can address any overcrowding issues within our cluster by doing our own minimal redistricting and allowing as many students as possible to remain at their current schools, thus retaining our current community, diversity and IB vertical integration (we are the only cluster where ALL of the schools are IB certified, an achievement we are all proud of).

We are rejecting all four of the presented proposals: we feel strongly that the Pine Hills Neighborhood belongs in the Sarah Smith School District. Please invest the SPLOST funding which we approved just last month, to build the necessary infrastructure/capacity at Sarah Smith Elementary, Sutton Middle School and North Atlanta High School which is critically needed to support the surrounding communities, including all of Pine Hills. The option that I would prefer is not listed. I STRONGLY prefer keeping Sutton intact as a neighborhood middle school to serve the children moving from W.T. Jackson and Sarah Smith and having North Atlanta serve the schools such as E. Rivers, Brandon, etc. that are in it's neighborhood. That way we keep the schools serving their communities. It makes no sense to me to put a 9th grade annex at Sutton intended to serve a much larger community when we could easily have two schools serving their own areas. If Brandon is concerned about the area that the school it's children would attend would draw from, they need to remember that they will have these areas either way. There's no getting around where they are located. But, as soon as you take our middle school away (Sutton serving Jackson) you lose many families that would have attended our neighborhood school because it will no longer be a neighborhood school. At this point, I plan to send my three children to SMS and support it monetarily. I WILL NOT send them to North Atlanta Middle School with a larger spanning area of student locations. My sentiments are similar to many of my fellow parents in my area.

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SRT 4

We live in Riverside, a vibrant part of the Bolton Academy community. Our community has worked for YEARS to make Bolton a viable option for educating our children, and none of the 4 options presented leaves our community in the Bolton district. Of all the changes being proposed by the demographers, the disinclusion of our neighborhood is the most devastating, and frankly, it is unacceptable. We walk to Bolton ALREADY to use the playground and attend fundraising events. We are ALREADY part of the Bolton community, but we are NOT part of the Scott community. Cutting our neighborhood off from the feeder school Bolton will have long lasting dramatic consequences for our families, and our community. I believe the demographers have made an error. From a bird's eye view it looks like Riverside, Vinings on the Chattahoochee, and Whittier are connected southerly with the Scott community, but that is simply not the case. On the ground, in real life, we are part of the greater Buckhead community. We shop on Howell Mill, many of us have been passionately involved in the Moore's Mill/Bolton redevelopment efforts (an area mostly NORTH of Bolton Academy, our kids have friends in the Bolton community. My children currently are in a private preschool and ALL of the kids in their school are either in Rivers or Bolton. This is not just a matter of "I don't want to send my kids to Scott", it is a matter of demographics! Most people in our neighborhood could have afforded to live more northerly deeper into Buckhead, but we chose to live here because of the vibrant community and unique character of our neighborhood. Knowing that we would feed into Sutton and N. Atlanta high was essential to that decision. If we are cut out of the Buckhead cluster, our community will literally die because many of the affluent, educated people will leave. The only people who will stay will be the ones too poor to move and the ones well off enough to afford private school. Many of the affluent families in our community have JUST come around to the idea of sending their kids to Bolton, and that is why so much energy, time, and resources have been poured into Bolton, BY US! For our community, Bolton has been barely acceptable, mostly because we knew it would feed into the better upper schools. For us, Scott elementary is simply a non-option. There will NOT be the momentum there was at Bolton if we are switched to Scott. What will happen is there will be a mass exodus, Scott will remain underused, and probably so will Bolton as the more affluent people currently at Rivers will not want to drive all the way over to Bolton. If we can find a way, through working constructively together to keep Underwood Hills at Rivers, and Riverside at Bolton, then we will be keeping the coherency of our greater community intact. We want all high school students on one campus as, logistically, having non-driving students at another location is a burden that affects academic, cultural and extracurricular activity pursuits, including sports. We would like for the option of a 9th grade academy to be included in the long-term site plan so that, should the time come for an expansion, it has been adequately planned. The concept for a 9th grade academy seems to be driven solely by the presence of athletic facilities at the current Sutton campus. However, this feature was not discussed publicly prior to the release of these options, and it is overwhelmingly unpopular among ajc.com blog responses, parents I've met with, and others. If a 9th grade academy is unavoidable, it makes much more sense to co-locate it on the site of the new North Atlanta HS to be convenient to athletic facilities, and share the larger administrative staff and overhead costs incurred by a high school. Sutton’s overcrowding is the foremost issue. We realize that we cannot address this until the new high school is built, but the two scenarios that we would like to be considered are either one middle school on the current North Atlanta campus with the option of a 6th grade academy at the current Sutton location, or two separate middle schools.

I did not rank the high school options but think 2400 students in a high school is too many and there should be 2 high schools to accommodate that number. I like the idea of a Freshman campus or middle school including 9th grade.

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SRT Representative Sample of Individual Comments Other Comments Use of existing facilities-Consider using existing facilities like the Walden School on Irwin Street. This could be a 5th and 6th grade academy that could include Hill Hope, Centennial, Lin, Springdale, and possibly Morningside. This could be an example of the diversity of the city of Atlanta displayed in a highly visible area near downtown and Freedom Parkway. The needed capacity would be about 570 (810 with Morningside). Additional Middle Schools- Bunche Middle School is 5.1 miles from Young Middle School. Young Middle School is 3.5 miles from Harper Archer Middle Schools. Travelling form Bunche Middle School to Harper Archer takes about 15 minutes to go 6.2 miles. It would be great to have other middle schools in the area of Inman Middle School. To go from Inman Middle School to Sutton Middle School you cover a distance of 18.5 miles and takes a half hour or so. There is a desperate need for additional middle schools in between both of these schools.

While we realize that we have several schools that are at or near capacity, we feel that we can address any overcrowding issues within our cluster by doing our own minimal redistricting and allowing as many students as possible to remain at their current schools, thus retaining our current community, diversity and IB vertical integration (we are the only cluster where ALL of the schools are IB certified, an achievement we are all proud of). The Bolton Road area bordering the western edge of Ridgewood Heights is currently an urban blight area, partially resulting from the mostly abandoned Moores Mill shopping Center. This area is marked by crime and drug use, adding danger to that already created by the heavily traveled, multi-lane Marietta Blvd corrior. The City recognizes the problems in this area and has made plans to assist in the redevelopment of the Moores Mill shopping center and to make road improvements to address the traffic problems. The plans continue to be delayed. The children of Ridgewood Heights should not have to cross this area to go to school so long as these conditions remain as they presently are.

Why does APS want to create more traffic issues in this area. There is already heavier traffic congestion from Pine Hills to the Garden Hills area. We do not have that same congestion from Pine Hills to Sara Smith. Since City of Atlanta/GA DOT some 20 years ago with the construction of GA 400, removed convenient access to the Garden Hills area from Pine Hills, I see no reason why you want to put children and families at risk of going through heavier traffic to get to school. In addition, I think that all of Pine Hills should be a part of the Sara Smith School District. It is ridiculous to have this neighborhood split having part of the neighborhood dealing with traffic issues to Garden Hills. Families in Pine Hills have spent over 30 years helping build up the high standards of Sara Smith. I would hate to see all of this good work no longer available to the families living in this neighborhood. Sara Smith is known for its excellent education which in part is due to heavy parent participation. Pine Hills parents have been a major part of that and they need to remain a part of what they have helped build. The PATH Foundation has planned the PATH to connect our neighborhood directly with Bolton Academy. We are planning to enjoy this walkable community with this infrastructure in place. Scott Elementary School is not walkable from our community (Riverside, Whittier, Parkview and Vinings on the Chattahoochee). It appears that the "Consulting" firm did not want to field questions regarding the possibility of offering solutions at the meeting on Nov 30, despite saying over and over that the maps are "fluid". It does not appear that any alternative will be presented to our community. These proposals divide our neighborhoods and create a vacuum of families that will not be supporting the local school should it be Scott Elementary.

Properties within the geographic zone such as David T Howard High School need to be renovated and put to use. I am suggesting it be used to serve as a Middle School for Old Fourth Ward, Inman Park and Candler Park neighborhoods. The GA Path and "The Beltline" need to be considered for transportation options. Inman Park is a less than a mile from Grady High school via the beltline.

Parents have built the reputations of these high-performing schools, and I hope the board will consider that before watering down the high performing schools with the under-perfoming schools. I understand the need to make education better for all students, but alienating the parents who worked hard to acheive the history of academic success at Lin will simply lead to a mass exodus of students to private schools. APS needs to take more time and work with the community and neighborhoods as well as LSCs to develop plans that address capacity issues in ways that the communities can both understand and support. Time to get buy-in is critical in light of the recent history and difficulties APS has had that have already undermined public support in many ways - APS does not need to undercut its community support by pushing through "solutions" without full, frank, honest and transparent dialogue. If you make any decisions that bring down the value of my home I will promptly move out of the city

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Other We are firmly FOR any plan that seeks to improve resources at existing underperforming schools and/or enlarging existing top performing schools to accomodate students at historically underperforming schools. We are firmly Comments AGAINST all options that split existing elementary schools into K-2 and 3-5 "learning centers". We are firmly AGAINST any plan that involuntarily moves children from an established, top performing school to a historically underperforming school.

Clearly the demographers have different priorities than most of the parents and students who utilize Atlanta Public Schools. Unless they are willing to recognize that our communities (especially those intown) aren't looking to re- segregate our schools and have no desire to send our kids away from the middle and high schools within walking distance that our neighborhoods have nurtured and supported for over 50 years to an industrial site in Buckhead in order to relieve some of the unwanted "diversity" at Sutton, they should be relieved of their responsibilities. It is the duty of the Superintendent and APS to insist that the goals and objectives outlined by the focus groups be the guiding principles in creating redistricting plans - not the personal biases of the outside hired help. Please do a better job vetting next time. 1. Need to look at the BELTLINE plan, which ties together a network of walking and bike paths. This project is funded by T-SPLOST funds and using it in the plan would fulfill its purpose and maximize taxpayer dollars; 2. Explore other real estate options, such as the creation of a 6th grade academy at the existing Howard School location in Old Forth Ward to relieve pressure from Inman Middle School; 3. Could also consider closing Hope-Hill and relocating to Howard when joined with Mary Lin. Howard is larger and closer to Mary Lin neighorhoods. This whole plan with the 4 options must be THROWN OUT and start a whole new look started, this process has been fundamentallly flawed in its premise: and what's the hurry It's important to change as few neighborhoods as possible. Many city residents purchase their homes based on school district. You're pulling the rug out from under them when you redistrict.

Capacity is one factor in the complicated calculus of education quality. This study, while addressing the important issue of capacity, should also address the correlation between capacity and improved education. I would hope that the Atlanta Public School board would place into context this study with other factors such as teacher quality and parent engagement. The message coming from APS should not simply be "we are going to address the capacity issue" it should be "we must improve education quality in all Atlanta schools. Capacity is one issue. Here is our plan for other components." I do not think that increased capacity would have prevented the cheating scandal nor would it in and of itself increase test scores. Furthermore, will APS conduct an address audit to ensure that only those legally living within a given district are attending that district? I would think this is part of the capacity question. This is an important initiative and must have long term impact. But it must do more than simply shift around students or build new classes. It must help educate our children and I would like to see APS address that topic within the context of this study. Thank you to APS for allowing us to have a say in our schools!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!