Education and Student Engagement

APS Board passes FY16 budget of $685.6 million

April 30, 2015 by Mackenzie Madden

At 6:26 pm in the Mays Conference Room at CLL, the room was split into two factions. “Team Matt” that consisted of APS Board members and “Team Meria” consisting of the APS Superintendent’s staff members. “We’re all Team Kid” chimes in Cynthia Briscoe-Brown, APS Board Member At-Large, Seat 7. In a FY16 budget meeting scheduled to end at 6 pm (starting at 4 pm), the people around the table have yet to come to any decisions. They then divided up to take additional looks at the proposed budget scenarios to see what else could be done to pick and choose.

The general conversation over the past 2 hours centered around whether funds need to be prioritized for custodial services or an IB-level education. Meria complains about “prehistoric spiders” and urine-stained walls that create a low-quality learning/teaching environment for students/teachers. Board members are persistent on the need for an IB-baseline. Briscoe-Brown jokes (or maybe she is serious) that she will muster an army of parents to clean the bathrooms and Westmoreland quips about a “Board Service Day” setting rat traps.

During this break, several board members seem more concerned with what is being said about them or about APS on Twitter than what is happening in the room. After reconvening, the conversation turns to a focus on the arts and the overall lack of arts access in APS schools.

At the end of the evening, all board members agreed on the budget, except one: Byron Amos, District 2 Board Member. The following Monday, the General Fund Budget passed at $685.6 million. See Superintendent Meria Carstarphen’s thoughts here: http://atlsuper.com/2015/04/20/board-approves-fy16-general-fund-budget-for-aps/

Full notes from the meeting are attached.

A slide deck from a previous APS Board budget meeting is attached as well, however it is not the one used at the meeting, as it had still not been made public as of April 29, 2015.

APS Budget Meeting Notes

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FY16 Board Meeting – Budget Discussion

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OurGirls @ Tech – Spring 2015 visit

April 9, 2015 by Mackenzie Madden

On a surprisingly cold spring day, 22 Brown Middle School females and their chaperones stepped onto Georgia Tech’s campus for a visit. While the drive only took them 12 minutes, Georgia Tech was a place they had never been before even though the majority of them have lived close by their entire lives. Part of a larger mission the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts has to expose more local Atlanta Public Schools students to the possibility of attending Georgia Tech for college, this was the third time the Westside Communities Alliance has hosted such an OurGirls event. In previous years, Sylvan and Kennedy middle schools also attended.

This year, the girls, escorted by current Georgia Tech students that served as volunteers, got a unique view of the campus. They stopped by the Clough Undergraduate Learning Center (CULC) to see the Urban Honey Bee Project led by Dr. Jennifer Leavey and toured the Invention Studio at the Manufacturing Related Disciplines Complex (MRDC) to see the 3D printer. They also got to see a residence hall for the first time. The photo scavenger hunt took them to the water slide, a dining hall, the radio station, and several popular student hang-out spots on campus.

Catered lunch took place overlooking Historic Grant Field at Bobby Dodd Stadium in the Student Success Center. They heard from current senior and Public Policy major, Katharine Mitchell about self-identity and maneuvering through college as a woman of color. Andre Dickens, Assistant Director of the Office of Minority Educational Development, spoke about the resources available as a minority student at Tech, including unlimited tutoring and new activity and social groups. Jade Sims from the Office of Admissions spoke about what it takes to get into college, particularly Georgia Tech, and how to make changes now that can will prepare you to not only get in, but succeed in college.

The students left with swag to remember their trip and the WCA looks forwards to its next group of girls in 2016.

Friendship Baptist Church Demolition Hearing

May 5, 2014 by Mackenzie Madden

On April 2nd, 2014, the Georgia World Congress Center published a notice of a public hearing in the Daily Report in accordance with OCGA 12-16-5. The public had previously been told to look at the GWCC website for any updates on important meetings. On Friday, May 1st at 2 pm, the GWCC website was updated with a notice of the public hearing regarding the demolition of Friendship Baptist Church for the New Stadium Project. WCA Staff attended the meeting. As of 6:30 pm on Monday May 5th (the day and start time of the public hearing), all doors to Building C were locked, until GWCC security was called to open the doors. The meeting was not video-taped and the only way people will hear about the comments made are via Kevin Duvall and Frank Smith of the Georgia World Congress Center Authority and State Properties Commission respectively. Below, find the Environmental Effects Report produced for the site, the notice of the hearing, the construction/demolition schedule, and the public comments as recorded by WCA Staff.

Public Hearing Notification

Environmental Effects Report

Demolition/Construction Schedule

FriendshipDemo_PublicComment

Update from NPU-D

March 31, 2014 by Mackenzie Madden

NPU-D is located in Northwest Atlanta, encompassing the neighborhoods of Berkeley Park, Blandtown, Underwood Hills, Hills Park, Bolton, Riverside, and Whittier Mill Village. Over the last few months, WCA Activities Coordinator Carly Queen has been attending these meeting to take notes and report on the proceedings. Due to the winter weather in January the NPU-D meeting was postponed. Due to pressing matters in City Council, the meeting was rescheduled to February 11, which is normally the NPU-D Executive Committee Meeting. This meeting was announced, but at the meeting a concerned citizen expressed that the meeting was not properly advertised. The meeting and voting took place regardless of this concern. At the February 25 meeting a resolution was proposed to endorse actions taken at the February 11 meeting in response to the concern of improper advertisement, which was possibly in violation of the open meetings act. The concerned citizen proposed voting on each matter from the February 11 meeting again individually at the March meeting, so this was the process for endorsing the past actions. At the March 25 meeting all actions previously taken at the February 11 meeting were again approved. Other than resolving this controversy, the last few NPU-D meetings have served to disseminate information and allow NPU members to vote on a variety of important matters, listed below.

NPU D Minutes February 11

NPU D Minutes February 25

TopGolf Driving Range with Restaurant and Bar planned for a currently vacant lot off of Ellsworth Industrial Boulevard Top Golf

Riverwalk Atlanta is doing a feasibility study for a linear park along the Chattahoochee River, including the old incinerator site Riverwalk

Not in NPU-D, but here is some information on the Collier Village Rezoning Collier Village Redevelopment

FACTS Academy Charter School has been proposed for a site on Marietta Blvd, which will focus on fine arts, chess, and technology education FACTS

Capital Improvements Program and Community Work Program 2015-2019 CIP and CWP 2015 to 2019

Please direct any questions to: carlyqueen@gatech.edu

Summer Camp Season is Coming!

March 28, 2014 by Mackenzie Madden

Georgia Tech offers a multitude of summer camps for students of all ages – from elementary school to high school. In this packet (GT_SummerCamps), you will find the various offerings through different campus departments.