What Exactly Is the “Jackson Cluster”?

By K. L. Hester
One result of the recent Atlanta Public Schools (APS) redistricting is that all district schools are now organized into nine new Kindergarten through middle school “clusters,” each feeding into a single high school. Previously, schools in Atlanta were sometimes “split-feeders”, which meant that not all students who traveled through elementary school together necessarily stayed together through high school.
Since redistricting, many schools in southeast Atlanta gain a cohesive identity as part of the Jackson cluster. Elementary schools Benteen, Burgess-Peterson Academy, Dunbar, Parkside, D.H. Stanton, Toomer, and Whitefoord now feed into one of two middle schools, either Coan (in Edgewood) or Martin Luther King, Jr. (in Grant Park). Coan and MLK feed into Maynard H. Jackson Jr. High School, as may students from three area charter schools (Atlanta Neighborhood Charter School, Wesley International Academy, and Drew Charter Schoo1) who reside within qualifying attendance zones.
Maynard Jackson, the high school lending its name to the Jackson cluster, undergoes a particularly visible transformation this year. The last of Atlanta’s high schools to be updated, Jackson is currently in the midst of a multi-million dollar renovation and is temporarily housed at Coan Middle School at 1550 Hosea Williams Drive. The school’s search for a new principal is drawing to a close as The Porch Press goes to print.
Jackson also has applied to become an International Baccalaureate (IB) World School. The IB authorization process requires at least three planning years to become an authorized IB World School. The school hopes to receive authorization during the summer of 2013 in preparation for the 2013-2014 school year.