A plan to improve low-performing schools will mean closures and consolidation following a unanimous vote by the Atlanta Public Schools Board of Education.
According to CBS46, Bethune Elementary School will close and a new K-8 STEM Academy (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) will open at the former Kennedy Middle School in the Washington cluster.
Conally Elementary School and Venetian Hills Elementary School will merge in the Washington Cluster. Grove Park Intermediate Elementary School and Woodson Primary Elementary School will merge in the Douglas Cluster.
Superintendent Meria Carstarphen promised during last year’s “State of the System” address that tough decisions would have to be made to improve the 26 underperforming schools threatened with state takeover. Voters will decide this November if the state should take over failing schools around Georgia as part of Gov. Nathan Deal’s Opportunity School District plan.
Many parents and teachers are opposed to the turnaround plan and have called for another solution.