A Quiet Start To The School Year For Atlanta Public Schools
Because of the coronavirus pandemic, students in Atlanta Public Schools began the year learning at home Monday.
However, some of them will have new school buildings waiting for them when they finally resume in-person classes. Howard Middle School in Atlanta’s Old Fourth Ward neighborhood underwent a $52 million renovation. The school sits on more than 7 acres and is 209,000 square feet.
The former Parks Middle School is now the Atlanta College and Career Academy. Located in Atlanta’s Pittsburgh neighborhood, the ACCA will offer courses in some of Georgia’s career pathways, including culinary arts, dentistry and graphic design.
A group of adults toured Howard on Monday morning. They included school board members, reporters and APS Superintendent Lisa Herring. Although no students were in the building, some teachers were in their classrooms conducting virtual lessons with their students.
Herring stopped and spoke to Patrick Dougherty’s sixth graders.
“Happy first day, guys!” she said excitedly. “We know it’s different, but we’re so happy to see you.”
Seventh-grade teacher Kiersten Hellier was also working in her classroom.
“I have kids at home and it’s just crazy there,” she said. “I prefer to work in this beautiful building if I can.”
The builders kept Howard’s original masonry but upgraded the floors and classrooms. Several classrooms have large windows that look out onto the school’s property and some of the neighborhood houses. Some pieces of Howard’s history were also preserved. The new gym has the school’s original bleachers. One classroom has an old chalkboard and desks.
“We’re proud of how Howard Middle School brings together the past and the present,” Herring said. “It’s very much like the season that we’re in. How appropriate.”
Howard was an elementary school and then a high school before closing in 1976. Now, it will take the place of Inman Middle School, which had been over-capacity.
Some of Howard’s well-known alums include the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and former Atlanta Mayor Maynard Jackson.
“For me as superintendent, Day One means a couple of things: still making physical visits out to our buildings because they are open, and then the latter part of the day, I’ll be ‘Zooming in’ [dropping in on classes held via Zoom] as long as Zoom is up,” Herring said.
The videoconferencing site had a massive outage earlier in the day.
Herring’s to-do list this week also includes providing devices for students who don’t have them and distributing meals to APS families. She said the district has distributed 14,000 digital devices to students so far. A week’s worth of meals will be distributed on Mondays. Parents need to sign up in advance.
A note of disclosure: The Atlanta Board of Education holds WABE’s broadcast license.