The new school year begins this week for many public schools in metro Atlanta, and with it will come changes for students, parents and teachers.
Here’s some of what’s new:
Cellphone crackdowns
Schools in several districts are implementing new policies to limit student cellphone use in classes. In many cases, students will have to put the phones in pouches during the day. The changes are taking place in some schools in districts that include Atlanta, Cherokee County, Decatur, DeKalb County and Marietta.
Photo courtesy Yondr
Photo courtesy Yondr
Security measures
The DeKalb County school board voted in early July to pay $1.65 million to put a weapons detection system by Massachusetts-based Evolv in five football stadiums and two additional schools, as well as add machines to four high schools that already have the system. The weapons detection systems were already in 41 middle and high schools in the county.
Over the summer, Atlanta Public Schools installed security vestibules (entryways) at more than 20 schools. The changes include ballistic film on windows, which is supposed to prevent glass from shattering if it breaks.
Literacy
Atlanta Public Schools will roll out a literacy plan this year that is similar to those implemented in Fulton County and Marietta City Schools. The plan, which follows the “science of reading” concept, focuses on teaching phonics, fluency, vocabulary and comprehension to help teach children to read. The APS plan will build on a pilot program implemented at eight schools for the past two years, where young students learned to sound out words through games, group activities and reading with partners.
State law requires Georgia school districts to adopt literacy instruction aligned with the “science of reading,” a body of research that supports phonics instruction, by July 1, 2025.
Steve Schaefer
Steve Schaefer
New leaders and educators
The Atlanta school board recently voted to hire a new superintendent, Bryan Johnson, a former superintendent of Hamilton County Schools in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Johnson officially starts on Aug. 5.
Henry County’s school board announced last week John Pace III, deputy superintendent of Miami-Dade County Public Schools, has been named the sole finalist to become its next superintendent. The school board will wait 14 days, as required by state law, before holding a final vote on whether to hire him, at which time they will set his contract and start date.
Seeger Gray / Seeger.Gray@ajc.co
Seeger Gray / Seeger.Gray@ajc.co
Many schools will have new principals and teachers. Gwinnett’s school district, for example, has said it has hired roughly 1,500 new teachers and 200 additional counselors.
Mental health
Atlanta Public Schools will pilot a student-led mental health board at five schools this year. The schools haven’t been named yet, but are expected to nominate one student and faculty member per school to serve on the board. The board, organized in part by national student advocacy nonprofit Our Turn, plans to have one mental health-related event per semester.
New and updated schools
During the upcoming school year, Gwinnett will build a new middle school in the Archer cluster to relieve McConnell Middle School, which has an enrollment of more than 2,000 students. The new building’s capacity will be 1,100 and is slated to open in August 2026. The new school has not yet been named, but it will be located on the eastern side of the cluster at 2945 Indian Shoals Road in Dacula. The project cost is $41.4 million.
In August, Central Gwinnett High School will complete the build-out of its fourth floor to bring the school’s capacity to 2,700, an increase of 350 students. The project cost is $2.6 million. Also in August, Archer High School’s renovations will be complete. The school will have 25 new classrooms and increase capacity from 2,850 to 3,325 students. The project cost is $15.7 million.
The Fulton County school district will reopen a former alternative school, McClarin High School, as the Promise Career Institute. Fulton partnered with Atlanta Technical College to develop a curriculum geared toward Georgia’s new Accelerated Career Diploma. The program is career-focused, so students take a reduced amount of high school classes and more job training courses. They graduate with a high school diploma and either two technical certificates, one technical college diploma or an associate’s degree. Enrollment is open to students from any Fulton County high school, officials said.
Henry County plans to open Birch Creek Elementary at 850 Willow Lane in McDonough. A ribbon-cutting ceremony for the new building is set for 10 a.m. Tuesday.
Atlanta Public Schools will repurpose the former Oglethorpe Elementary School building at 601 Thomas W. Cole Jr. Way, near the Atlanta University Center. The building will open as a resource center called APS Student and Family Support Hub. It will house the district’s homeless and foster care services, social work, counseling and other support services.
Staff writers Cassidy Alexander, Martha Dalton, Josh Reyes and Leon Stafford contributed to this article.
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