U.S. Education Secretary visits Coretta Scott King Young Women’s Leadership Academy

Coretta Scott King Academy students greet U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan (left), Superintendent Dr. Beverly L. Hall (left center) and Principal Melody Morgan (center). (Photo by Scott King)

U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan visited Coretta Scott King Young Women’s Leadership Academy (CSKYWLA) today, where he observed classes and hosted a roundtable discussion with educators, students and community members. Atlanta Board of Education Chair LaChandra Butler Burks and APS Superintendent Dr. Beverly L. Hall participated in the roundtable discussion. Burks initiated a brief discussion on how the federal government could better support local school boards in governing school districts. Much of the discussion centered on single-gender schools and how they provide a unique educational experience. CSKYWLA is an all-girls school currently serving students in grades 6-8. Several students and Principal Melody Morgan contributed to the discussion.

Duncan said he was impressed with the new school and campus, which opened for the first time last month. Earlier, Duncan addressed the 62nd annual meeting of the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education at the Hilton Atlanta Hotel.

Grady and Douglass students show why they’re great debaters

Students from Grady High School and Douglass High School competed recently at the Georgia High School Association State Debate Tournament. Grady had four students compete in the A-AA-AAA division and Douglass had four students compete in the AAAA-AAAAA division. Although it was Grady’s first appearance in the state tournament, they accomplished what most would consider impossible. Grady went undefeated in competition and prevailed in winning the state title, seized it from the Pace team that has held its lock on the tournament for twenty-five years. Grady’s debaters, Michael Barlow and Holden Choi, were also recognized for their individual accomplishments. Barlow was named the top Affirmative speaker in the state, and Holden as the second place Negative speaker. Congratulations!

Forrest Hill Academy makes Haiti relief point of discussion for spaghetti dinner

After the earthquake in Haiti, the students in the Current Issues class at Forrest Hill Academy watched clips from CNN and were moved almost to the point of tears at the devastation that they saw. Once they took everything in, the students of Forrest Hill Academy decided to raise money for Haitian relief by organizing and selling tickets to a spaghetti dinner. The first step that these students took was to organize themselves into committees to work on three parts of the dinner, which are the kitchen, decoration, and the tickets and program, which consists of 17 students and 12 faculty members. These committees have worked diligently to write a grant to Communities in Schools for $500, which they were awarded in January.

AFAEE ceremony postponed

The partnering families of the Atlanta Families’ Awards for Excellence in Education have decided to postpone the awards ceremony scheduled for March 4. Superintendent Dr. Beverly L. Hall and the partners made this recommendation because they felt that a decision to go forward would be perceived by many as minimizing the investigation surrounding the CRCT irregularities. While the investigation is pending, it was not deemed an appropriate time to move forward with the awards ceremony. Therefore, the ceremony is being postponed until May or early in the next school year, depending on the completion of the investigation. However, the partners felt it was important to award the $2,500.00 project money to the 2010 honorees in support of their students and their achievement.

Garden Hills Elementary welcomes Buckhead Business Association for Career Week

About 30 representatives from the Buckhead Business Assocation and the Atlanta community participated in Garden Hills Elementary‘s Career Week programming on Thursday and Friday. Bankers, attorneys, Realtors, entrepreneurs and others visited classrooms to share their life and business experience with students. Why talk about something so far off in the future? “We wanted to expose our students to a broad variety of the options that will be out there for them,” explained Garden Hills Principal Amy Wilson. “We give the Buckhead Business Association a lot of information of the curriculum that our children study so they can better tailor their message, and they clearly emphasize the general importance of staying in school. We have a lot of students who don’t have many opportunities to get an idea about careers outside the service industry.”