Archive for 2017
#WorkHardPlayHardAPS #Summer
Although most of our students are away for the summer, my dedicated colleagues across Atlanta Public Schools continue working hard as we prepare for the upcoming 2017-2018 school year and move forward on the APS Journey of Transformation! I miss all of you, and I want everything to be ready when you come back. So…
Read MoreAPS Considers Millage Rollback as Part of Reassessment Solution
As I wrote in my blog “Clarification of Our Millage Rate Adoption Process and Call for Reasonable Stop Gap for Your Property Taxes” last week, the Atlanta Board of Education earlier this month approved an FY2018 budget based on 6% growth projections in the Fulton County Tax Digest as provided by the Interim Chief Tax…
Read MoreClarification of Our Millage Rate Adoption Process and Call for Reasonable Stop Gap for Your Property Taxes
Wow! We’ve been seeing quite a lot of incorrect and misleading information about Atlanta Public Schools’ millage rate related to Fulton County tax assessments. First, Fulton County has made it clear that recent increases in the assessment of property values are due to under-assessments over the past several years. Second, APS and our Board have…
Read MoreCongratulations, Grad Nation – APS Class of 2017!
It’s official. It’s late on Friday at the Georgia World Congress Center. And all of the Atlanta Public Schools’ Classes of 2017 – supported by spirited and loving gatherings of parents, caregivers and other family members as well as teachers, principals and friends – have left the building. Operation Grad Nation was a smashing success!…
Read MoreAligning Every Penny Toward APS Journey of Transformation
As the Atlanta Board of Education prepares to consider a tentative 2018 General Fund Budget at its May 1 meeting, we have a responsibility to show our stakeholders where their tax dollars are going and how we are striving to push more of those dollars directly to the classrooms where education happens! Last week, I…
Read MoreMaking ‘Cents’ of the Dollars APS Spends for FY2018
For a school district, a return from Spring Break not only highlights the final sprint toward graduation ceremonies and summer break, it means delving deep into the dollars and cents to carve out budgets for the next school year ahead. Sure, the Atlanta Board of Education, my colleagues and I have more and more numbers…
Read MoreAPS Updates Transportation Plan in Wake of I-85 Closure
As most of the Atlanta Public Schools community enjoyed a much-welcomed Spring Break, quite a number of our district team members, especially operations and transportation crews, worked through the vacation break to prepare for the traffic congestion expected after the closure of I-85. That was the kind of spirit and dedication we saw (and I…
Read MoreAPS Keeping Focus on Children amid Crisis, Impending Spring Break
Whenever a long break approaches, we all have a tendency to want to take it easy and coast through the last few days of school. But at Atlanta Public Schools, we have been gradually changing that mindset so that we keep focused on the education of children every single school day … even with everyone…
Read MoreAPS Advances School Changes for Improved Quality and Efficiency
Over the last three years, Atlanta Public Schools has done a great deal of work in right-sizing the district to more effectively direct resources toward our students. As part of this effort to improve quality while increasing efficiency, we consolidated small schools in the Carver, Therrell and Washington clusters and single-gender schools in the first…
Read More100 Days into Transformation Results in ‘Democratizing Education Through Student Voice and Hip Hop’ – How Cool Is That?!?
Today marks the 100th day of the first year of full implementation of our transformation in Atlanta Public Schools. As part of that work, APS is changing some of the ways we teach our students, giving them an authentic voice as they interact with the curriculum and shape learning for themselves. When I was preparing…
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