The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools made a two-day site visit to Atlanta Public Schools as the beleaguered school system works to safeguard its accreditation and get off probation status.
The SACS team met with management, board members and community members on Sept. 26 and Sept. 27, the schools system reported.
On Sept. 12, the school system gave SACS its final progress report detailing how it has addressed concerns raised by the accrediting body.
SACS placed the schools on probation in January. Keith Bromery, spokesman for Atlanta Public Schools, said the school system should hear back from SACS by the end of the month.
“The district feels confident that the Atlanta Board of Education has addressed all of the issues the SACS organization presented to it at the beginning of the calendar year,” Bromery said. “The board met almost every Monday evening from January through August working on these six required actions the SACS organization had given them.”
Cynthia Briscoe Brown, co-president of North Atlanta Parents for Public Schools, said her organization felt the SACS visit went well beyond the original scope of dealing with a dysfunctional school board.
“Many of our high schools (North Atlanta included) had their individual accreditation reviews with SACS in the past several months and passed with flying colors,” Brown said. “We fail to see why SACS would need to tour schools which are not part of their concern or even their jurisdiction.”
