APS Kicks Off New School Year With New Principals

Staff Report

Atlanta Public Schools began the 2015-2016 school year with excitement from students to bus drivers. APS preliminary attendance reports show that the district topped last year’s attendance record on Day One with 247 more students in class on the first day of school, Aug. 5.

Since the arrival of Superintendent Dr. Meria J. Carstarphen, the district has been focused on making sure families, students and employees know that the first day and every school day is an instructional day and an opportunity to learn. This is the second year of the district’s Day One: Be There. attendance campaign which has captured the attention of APS families. To help students prepare for Day One, APS held its first districtwide Back-To-School Bash at Atlanta Metropolitan State College. More than 5,000 families attended the free event, receiving services, information, and backpacks filled with school supplies.

The district also began the year with all school principals and assistant principals in place. This included 18 first-time APS principals.

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Newly-assigned Atlanta Public Schools principals join members of the Atlanta Board of Education and Superintendent Carstarphen at the August 10 meeting of the board.

From left: DeMarcos Holland, Douglass High School; Audrey Sofianos, Morningside Elementary School; Tracie Astin, Perkerson Elementary School; Dr. Rasheen Booker, Fain Elementary School; Zawadaski Robinson, Forrest Hill Academy; Dr. Marcus Jackson, Boyd Elementary School; Dr. Meria J. Carstarphen, Superintendent Atlanta Public Schools; Langston Longley, Scott Elementary School; Erin Barksdale, Coretta Scott King Young Women’s Leadership Academy; Demarco Mitchell, Young Middle School; Sharyn Briscoe, Mary Lin Elementary School; Robin Robbins, D.H. Stanton Elementary School; and David White, Burgess-Peterson Academy Elementary School. Second Row: Dr. Patricia Ford, South Atlanta High School, Eshe’ Collins (District 6), Byron Amos (District 2), Matt Westmoreland (District 3), Nancy Meister (vice chair, District 4), Courtney English (chair, At-Large), Leslie Grant (District 1), Steven Lee (District 5), Jason Esteves (At-Large), Cynthia Briscoe Brown (At-Large), and Lincoln Woods, Connally Elementary School. (Not Pictured) Ashley Adamo, Toomer Elementary School; Dr. Timothy Jones, B.E.S.T. Academy; Dr. Marvin Pryor, Carver High School; and Dr. Dione Simon, Towns Elementary School.