UPDATE: The survey was previously down while they made a couple of corrections, but it's back up now. Have at it.
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Last night, CPNO held a special meeting to gain consensus around school redistricting options. The position statement below summarizes the recommendations that emerged from that meeting.
This purpose of this statement is three-fold: 1) To make Candler Park's preferences known to APS stakeholders and demographers and 2) To identify areas of mutual interest with other intown neighborhoods and 3) To help residents make informed choices prior to filling out the APS survey.
ALL RESIDENTS SHOULD FILL OUT THE APS SURVEY WHICH CAN BE FOUND HERE. (Click the link that says "Feedback Form / Comments Link.") Please see below for CPNO's recommended options in blue, along with the justifications for each. You must vote by December 16.
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CPNO Position Statement Re: Schools & Redistricting
On December 6, 2011, the Candler Park Neighborhood Organization (CPNO) held a special meeting to discuss school overcrowding and redistricting. The goals were to build consensus around neighborhood preferences, discuss options presented by Bleakley demographers, explore options that may not yet have been considered, and to come up with a set of recommendations. The meeting was attended by Candler Park residents, as well as neighbors from adjoining neighborhoods and members of the Mary Lin Local School Council.
The Candler Park neighborhood is what it is today in large part because of its strong schools. Mary Lin Elementary has a widely recognized record of academic success, a high degree of parental involvement, excellent walkability, and is supported by hundreds of families in the community. It is the anchor of our community.
It is crucial to the future of Candler Park that we maintain and nurture the success of Mary Lin, and that our students stay within our other strong community schools – Inman Middle and Grady High.
After careful consideration, CPNO voted on and approved the following:
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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.
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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.
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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.
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For the above reasons, Candler Park favors option 3 at the elementary level
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Strongly support keeping Mary Lin in the Inman - Grady cluster. All four options on the table maintain the current feeder system; it is critical to Candler Park that this continues to be the case in any considered scenario.
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Strongly support a plan that allows Morningside neighborhood to remain at Grady High School. Our neighbors to the north contribute significantly to Grady’s strength, and current plans have them traveling great distances to a different high school. It is in their best interest and ours to keep them at Grady.
- For the above reasons, Candler Park favors option 3 at the middle school level and option 2 at the high school level.
CPNO also recognizes that this redistricting process may necessarily require trade-offs and compromises by all neighborhoods. With that in mind, we propose the following areas where further exploration may be warranted:
1) Consider higher utilization – In order to maintain the current K-5 Mary Lin configuration, and to stay in the Inman – Grady cluster, Candler Park would be open to having more students per school and / or classroom (demographers have suggested aiming for a 80 – 90% utilization).
2) Consider a 5/6 or 6 academy - While we strongly prefer a K-5 elementary school, we would be at least open to the idea of a 5/6 or 6 academy, potentially joining forces with SPARK and Hope-Hill. This could potentially relieve overcrowding at the elementary and / or middle school levels. We strongly oppose sending our younger children to school in a different part of town; however, kids at the fifth or sixth grade levels may be better able to make this transition successfully.
In summary, we ask for the support of the school board, the superintendent, and the demographers to keep Candler Park the strong community that it is today. To achieve that, it is necessary to keep Candler Park, Lake Claire and Inman Park together at Mary Lin in a K-5 configuration, and to allow those students to continue on to Inman and Grady.
We appreciate that the decisions involved in working to improve our school system are complex and difficult, and we thank you for the effort you have put into this process.
Candler Park Movie Nights are FREE and take place in Candler Park at dusk. Movie night is produced by Friends of Candler Park and funded by CPNO. 2013 schedule:
The online survey has been
The online survey has been closed. I don't know why.
It's back up now
They took it down temporarily to correct a couple of things, but it's back up now.
CPNO Is WRONG
Tying us and our best interests to Inman Park is very short sighted. Option 2 is the worst option for us at all levels. Option 1 is the best option. Why would we ever want to dumb down our education to "keep us together as a happy family"? Do we want lower property taxes, worse education, and higher crime? I guess so. My familhy was considering doing an addition on our house but if either of those to options pass, we are moving to a better neighborhood! I cant believe CPNO went this direction! Absolutely insane!
correction
Sorry, lower property value... I would love lower property taxes if there was no loss.
Keeping Mary Lin K-5
Thanks to the thoughtful residents who contributed to last Tuesday night's conversation -- especially to Jay Sandhaus for guiding a meeting that could easily have gone off the rails. I think we ended up with a soild, creative set of recommendations that both reach out to nearby neighborhoods and make sense for our kids.
But I want to clarify one point for Candler Parkers who couldn't make the meeting or had to leave early. Among other things, CPNO voted overwhelmingly in favor of two principles last night: 1) to keep Mary Lin a K-5 school, and 2) to keep the three "sister neighborhoods" of Candler Park, Lake Claire and Inman Park together in the same elementary district. So, where the two principles conflict with each other, which would be our strongest preference?
My top preference happens to be to keep Mary Lin as a K-5 school. I want to be able to walk with my kid to a high-performing school all the way up through fifth grade. That's what we now have in Candler Park.
If you share this view, you can make that clear by reflecting so in your survey. On the survey, the elementary school options that would keep Mary Lin K-5 are options 3 and 1. The difference is that Option 3 would keep Inman Park in the Mary Lin District, while Option 1 wouldn't. In other words, Option 3 is closest to the status quo as far as elementary schools go, while Option 1 is second closest to that status quo.
So, on my survey, I'm filling out the elementary options this way: Top choice: Option 3 (keep the 'hoods together AND keep Mary Lin K-5). Option 1 (keep Mary Lin K-5). If keeping Mary Lin K-5 is your top choice, this order of preferences would reflect your view.
Options 2 and 4 keep the three neighborhoods together as well, but would split Mary Lin by grades. Under 2, three grades would go to Hope-Hill, which is in Old Fourth Ward (closer to Inman Park); under 4, three grades would go to Toomer, which is in Kirkwood (closer to Candler Park and Lake Clair).
Some folks argued that, for political reasons and because of the connections between the three neighborhoods, we should tie our interests to Inman Park's -- which boils down to making Option 2 our second choice. As one person warned: we shouldn't "wake the sleeping bear" of Inman Park to work against our own interests -- by, say, advocating for Candler Park and Lake Clair to be tossed out of the Inman/Grady cluster.
First of all, I think that's cynical view of the good folks of inman Park and weak view of our own strength as a neighborhood combined with Lake Clair and Kirkwood.
But more to the point, Option 2 would send our kids for three of their six elementary years to what is currently the lowest performing and the most distant of the three elementary schools in the mix (Hope-Hill). Option 4 (sending all three neighborhoods' kids to Toomer, which is a higher performing school and shorter commute from most of Candler Park) may be preferable to that.
One creative option that came from one participant at last night's meeting is reflected in the position statement (see #2 under "further exploration"). It seems to me a brilliant idea -- as one friend said a compromise in the best sense of the word, one that actually solves problems and spreads around the pain. That's better than 2 or 4, but I still think Option 3 and 1 are preferable for our kids in Candler Park.
Contrary to the first commenter, I do think CPNO came up with a responsible, thoughtful position -- as a neighborhood. It's a position that alligns us with the two neighborhoods that are part of our extended community.
In the end, however, as individuals it seems to me that we candidly should state our preferences. And I suspect the preference for most of us is to have our kids go to the best school, the one that is within walking distance of our homes, for five all six years.
Be sure to hit the correct "feedback" link on the APS page
IMPORTANT! Once you go to the APS page linked from the position statement above, the link you'll actually want to hit to go to the survey is called is "Feedback / Comments Link (Online Version)."
There's a separate "Survey Link" on the left sidebar. That's an older survey that doesn't give you a chance to rank your options. The "survey" you want actually is the "Feedback/Comments Link."
correction to the CPNO position statement
The CPNO position statement is incorrect. We wish for it to be amended to clearly state the actual facts of the voting process. At the CPNO meeting Tuesday night, there was minimal discussion concerning the middle school options, and there were no votes concerning the middle school options.
The importance of the continuity of the entire Grady High School Cluster is, in our opinion, very critical for any and all options to be weighed. The dynamics that make up the Grady Cluster cannot be isolated; they also cannot be limited to the four options presented by the demographers.
Thank you to everyone who is working through this awful process that has been dumped on us. To quote an "unknown" band, we will survive!
Sarah & John Rick