Fulton County Schools Zone 4 Superintendent Alexandra Bates told the school board that more than 63 percent of students enrolled in Sandy Springs public schools are economically disadvantaged, but have made significant strides academically.

Bates made her presentation during the Fulton County Schools Board of Education’s work session on Dec. 9.

Bates said Zone 4 has shown clear, consistent improvement over the last three years. The number of beginning learners has decreased and the number of proficient and distinguished learners has increased. Almost half of the students in Sandy Springs meet or exceed standards, with the graduation rate a 95.6 percent in the two traditional high schools, Riverwood and North Springs.

The 8,774 students enrolled in Pre-K to 12 are served by 1,145 employees.

Related stories:
• North Springs and Riverwood boast high graduation rates in Georgia
• North Springs High launches Accelerated Career Diploma program
• Fulton County Schools shows student achievement increases

Bates’ report said that the Sandy Springs student population at these schools includes almost as many Hispanic students (2,718) as it does Black students (2,845). White students make up approximately 24 percent of the enrollment, or 2,160. Asian students are a smaller portion of the population, with 513 enrolled.

Almost 17 percent of the students are English learners, according to the Zone 4 report. Individuals with disabilities make up a little more than 12 percent of the student population. Approximately 18 percent of the students are classified as gifted.

Enrollment by grade level shows the stark reality of declining enrollment. According to the Zone 4 report, enrollment in grades nine through 12 totals 3,135. Only 2,335 students are enrolled in Sandy Springs schools in grades five through eight.

Bates said Zone 4 includes six elementary, three middle, and three high schools, plus six pre-K sites. Specialized learning is offered through one virtual school, one STEM campus, and one STEAM campus. Five schools provide the International Baccalaureate program, which Bates said offers rigorous opportunities for students.

“I want to highlight Woodland Elementary, which is one of the only two STEM schools in the district. Woodland has gone through a rigorous process to earn STEM certification and recently completed recertification,” Bates said. “It serves as a lab school hosting educators from across Georgia who visit to observe best practices and see students engaged in hands-on learning.”

Bates said Woodland’s commitment to hands-on, project-based learning in science, technology, engineering and math, STEM, and the design-thinking process is a way of life at the school. An example is the fifth grade’s work on its first semester question, which is how to lower the impact of power outages on lower-income families in the community. The solutions they create will be presented to community leaders.

“I’m proud to share that every elementary and middle school in zone four has surpassed this norm in English language arts. This is significant because strong growth scores are critical as we work to close achievement gaps for our students,” Bates said.

Other highlights include a 10.6 percent increase in reading indicators for Dunwoody Springs Elementary third graders. Ison Springs third graders had a 13.4 percent increase in reading, its fourth graders showed a 15.4 percent increase, and its fifth graders recorded a 13 percent increase.

Bates said these and other accomplishments couldn’t be done without community partnerships, including the Sandy Springs Education Force.

The post Economically disadvantaged Sandy Springs students show improved academic scores appeared first on Rough Draft Atlanta.

As you can read in the printed pages and online here, the City of Sandy Springs is celebrating its 20th birthday. While many of the city’s intrepid founders, including newly reelected Mayor Rusty Paul, like to say that the push for independence from Fulton County began decades earlier, there is no question that Sandy Springs set the stage for the cityhood movement that has reshaped Metro Atlanta. 

I wasn’t much older than 20 when I left Sandy Springs, a decade before Eva Cohn Galambos and crew would achieve their goal. Truth be told, I couldn’t wait to spread my wings and experience other places. I needed independence, too, and getting away from my childhood home was how I felt I would achieve it.

That’s what makes the second milestone so poignant, if not slightly ironic. 

A crazy, lucky idea

Five years ago this month, I bought Reporter Newspapers and its portfolio of trailblazing local newspapers whose (declining) revenue came almost exclusively from print advertising. While the endeavor thrilled me, it was, admittedly, an odd time to do so. Media was being upended by technology, and some people were still spraying their mail with Lysol, let alone picking up printed newspapers. 

TELL US WHAT YOU THINK: Take our reader survey here.

The gamble has worked out beyond my expectations. In addition to creating the perfect job for myself, we are closing 2025 with record revenue, and readership approaching one million people each month across print, web, newsletters, and social media.

I don’t take any of this growth or success for granted. As you have read here before, industry headwinds remain fierce, and macroeconomic uncertainty is a constant threat to advertising investment.

I know we are reaching more and more people every week. In fact, a young journalist recently told me that “Even my friends who don’t follow the news read Rough Draft,” and I blushed and beamed simultaneously, pride fighting its way through my imposter syndrome. 

People are reading Rough Draft in print, online, and via email because the work our team puts out day after day is some of the best in town. Not only do I hear it from other local journalists, but I see it in our readership numbers and in the feedback from neighbors who tell me that they rely on our publications to stay informed. 

Our goal is to give you a mix of the news you need (local government, public safety) and the stories you crave (food, arts, real estate), and five years into this local media adventure, I’m really proud that we are hitting that mark. 

Please keep your feedback coming via email (keith@roughdraft.news) or via our year-end survey (it will take you less than two minutes). 

Coming home again

At a recent dinner to talk about the state of Black-Jewish relations in the wake of October 7 and George Floyd, I sat at a table where four people had grown up in Sandy Springs and fled as young adults, only to make their way “home” in the last five or six years. We shared similar stories, but all agreed that we were happy to be where we were. 

Real talk, as the kids say: I never thought I’d be engaged again in the community, let alone own the newspaper that has given me a front-row seat from which I can proudly say, “yeah, I grew up in Sandy Springs. It’s pretty nice, isn’t it?”  

Happy Holidays! Here’s to another 20 years of prosperity for the city and for local journalism.

The post Publisher’s Note: 20 years later, home again appeared first on Rough Draft Atlanta.

Here is a fun fact: If you turn 21 this year, you were only one year old when we became a city.

How we have changed in these 20 years. The first years of Sandy Springs’ existence were spent “taking care of business.” This included setting up a city of 88,000, fixing and repairing basic utilities that had been neglected for years, standing up a top-notch police and fire department, and deciding who and what we wanted to be when we grew up.

For the past 10 years or so, we have created a city center and put community amenities into place for the citizens, including city hall, the PAC, and the green just outside. Fun events like parades and festivals have also defined these recent years.

Now, as we turn 20 years of age comes the future. How do we:

■ best manage but encourage smart growth and development;

■ expand the City Springs district;

■ maintain our excellent credit rating;

■ bring businesses and restaurants and citizens to our city, while continuing to make Sandy Springs a wonderful place to live.

In January, the new year starts with the addition of three new council members, each bringing valuable ideas that will be considered over the months and years ahead.

Next year we will also begin our 10-year review of the comprehensive plan adopted in 2017. I pledge to listen to all as we continue to make Sandy Springs a wonderful place to live, work and raise a family.

Pickup order leads to desire to serve

In 2016, I accepted my dream job, packed my daughter and our guinea pig into a U-Haul, and headed toward a new beginning. That journey brought us to a modest two-bedroom apartment in the North End, just within my budget, but with a pool that made it feel like home.

Sometime after settling in, I stopped at a small Chinese restaurant off Roswell Road. While waiting on an order of egg foo young, I picked up a magazine from a stack near the register: the Sandy Springs Perimeter Chamber 2017 Guidebook. As I flipped through what felt like a civic manual for my new city, something shifted. For at least a year, I understood intellectually that I resided in Sandy Springs. But at that moment, I wanted to live in Sandy Springs.

By the time I reached the page describing Leadership Sandy Springs, I knew I wanted to be involved. A few years later, I was featured as part of the Class of 2020, an experience that launched me into deeper service with organizations such as Sandy Springs Together, the Sandy Springs Education Force, and the Charter Review Commission. Today, I have the honor of serving as a city council representative, a role I hold with immense gratitude and pride.

I share this story because I know many residents have their own version of this journey. As we celebrate the 20th anniversary of our city, we honor the shared experiences and collective commitment that built Sandy Springs, including a single mom who walked in for egg foo young and walked out inspired to help shape its future.

Twenty Years of Progress — and a Clear Path Forward

When I moved to what is now Sandy Springs in 1999, I couldn’t believe that a community of 85,000 residents didn’t have its own local government. Coming from Pennsylvania, where cities and townships are locally governed, the idea that decisions for our neighborhoods were being made miles away made no sense. I made sure I wasn’t traveling for work that week so I could be home to vote for incorporation.

That vote was transformative. Instead of debating politics, every council since has stayed focused on what matters: solving problems, improving quality of life, and investing in our future. We inherited aging roads, neglected stormwater systems, and outdated zoning. In two decades, we have reversed that trajectory.

We have invested over $365 million in capital projects, $34 million in stormwater improvements, and $92 million through TSPLOST projects. Including the City Springs complex with the City Green and Performing Arts Center, the Police Headquarters and Municipal Court, two new fire stations, and the Fleet Maintenance Facility, our total infrastructure investment now exceeds $700 million—projects that simply would not have happened without incorporation.

With the foundation built, our next chapter is about elevating quality of life: more recreation and parks, reimagining aging commercial areas, expanding housing choices, and completing City Springs Phase II.

Public safety will always remain a top priority. When people feel safe, connected, and proud of where they live, a city thrives.

Sandy Springs is a wonderful place to call home—and we will keep it that way

The city’s future is with the people

For 20 years, Sandy Springs has been a story of a community determined to improve itself, often through sheer will, volunteerism, and a relentless belief in what is possible. When our city incorporated, it was because residents wanted more control over their future. That spirit is still here, and it is what has driven so many of the accomplishments we now take pride in: stronger public safety, improved parks, major infrastructure investments, and the creation of a vibrant civic center at City Springs.

Over the years, I have had the privilege of working closely with families, neighborhoods, schools, nonprofits, and countless residents who bring passion to every corner of our city. They are the heartbeat of Sandy Springs. Whether advocating for a new North Springs High School, improving recreational opportunities for our young people, or finding thoughtful ways to revitalize aging areas of our community, I have always believed that our greatest strength comes from engagement, from people rolling up their sleeves and working for something better.

Today, Sandy Springs stands at a crossroads. Our challenges are real, and so are the opportunities ahead. My hope is that we continue focusing on what makes a city thrive: safe streets, strong schools, transparent leadership, housing that supports families, and development that lifts our entire community.

No matter how the political winds shift, I remain grateful for the residents who make Sandy Springs what it is. This city’s future will always belong to the people who care enough to shape it.

Blessed to be part of the success

As I prepare for Thanksgiving with the family, I have to look back at my life in Sandy Springs. It started 38 years ago when I first met Eva Galambos and began working with her to form the city. The first 18 years was a time of lobbying, planning, and preparation. Forming a city was a new venture for both of us.

On day one, it’s like turning on a light switch – everything must be ready to provide for the residents. Fortunately, we had those years to get ideas ready and plans made. And, after that successful vote in July 2005, we were off and running.

These last 20 years that I’ve served on the council have been so rewarding since we all know how the city has blossomed. I tell people that Sandy Springs didn’t turn out as we expected – it turned out better than we could have hoped.

I feel blessed that I could have had a part in the success of Sandy Springs and witness its growth. As I retire and yield my seat to a younger generation of leadership, I am confident that the citizen-first direction of our city will continue. Everything we have planned and done has been to make the lives and futures of our residents better, and we should always continue that path.

Filled with opportunities for the next generation

When Sandy Springs was created 20 years ago, we began less as a naturally cohesive and logically defined city and more as a political and geographic boundary: 35 square miles of unincorporated Fulton County pressed between Atlanta and Roswell.

Our outer neighborhoods identified in very different ways: the south oriented toward Chastain and Buckhead; parts of the northeast/ panhandle gravitated toward Dunwoody; and the north end felt distant and often ignored. We were a collection of communities with shared concerns but lacking a shared identity.

Incorporation gave us the ability to address many governance-related concerns: local zoning decisions, consistent and first-rate public safety, thoughtful infrastructure planning and investment, and a more responsive and accountable municipal government that understood our day-to-day realities.

We also built something transformative: a true city center – City Hall, City Green, and the Performing Arts Center – places that didn’t exist before and now serve as the cultural, civic, and symbolic heart of Sandy Springs. And we established highly regarded police and fire departments that remain a deep source of pride and unity across every section of our city.

Two decades in, the challenges before us are more complex than those at our founding. Redevelopment, housing options for every stage of life, a declining schoolage population, the need to attract young families, and a rapidly changing regional landscape that will shape our future far more than the issues we confronted in 2005. And the recent election underscored something important: residents hold widely different views of where we are as a city and what work lies ahead.

The next 10 to 20 years will not be defined by what we built in our first 20, but by how we adapt. That requires widening the circle of engagement and involvement, bringing in younger and more diverse voices, elevating emerging community leaders, and creating more avenues for residents to help define what comes next.

If our first two decades proved anything, it’s that Sandy Springs can take control of its destiny. The task ahead is to grow into an even more connected community, filled with opportunity for every generation and welcoming to all who want to make Sandy Springs their home.

The post Current council members reminisce on 20 years of cityhood appeared first on Rough Draft Atlanta.

The Sandy Springs City Council created a downtown using an empty parking lot
beside Roswell Road with the adoption of a master plan in 2012.

It would be six more years before the first phase of City Springs was completed with the opening of the new city hall and Performing Arts Center in May 2018. The
retail and restaurant spaces took longer to open, and City Springs was considered fully opened in September 2018.

The vision set by the council was to promote community interaction by creating
a safe and welcoming area for all residents.

Mayor Rusty Paul said the city had no place where the residents could come together and build the connective tissue of the city.

“This was just one big asphalt parking lot, but we identified this as the place we
wanted to put city hall, because it’s one of the highest points in the city, and you could see it,” Paul said.

In addition to the public government buildings and a four-acre City Green, the 14-acre City Springs mixed-use development has restaurants, exercise boutiques, and apartments.

Paul said the City Green is where the spirit of Sandy Springs can be found. A community skating rink opened for the season in November. Concerts are held using the stage. The Sparkle Sandy Springs parade draws 5,000 to 6,000 people. And for the Fourth of July celebration, 8,000 to 12,000 people attend. He said none of this could have been done before City Springs was developed.

“When I talk about it being transformative, I don’t think anybody in Sandy Springs can imagine Sandy Springs without this complex because of the versatility, the ability to do so many different things, to come together as a community,” Paul said.

The community can visit and put a blanket out, or a table, they can set up a table for their organization or just come out to have a great time with friends, Paul said.

When the original plans for a city hall at the site expanded to include a Performing Arts Center and a conference center, it opened up opportunities. Paul said soon after he was elected, he was at a concert at the Heritage Green when he looked up at the hill to the future city hall site. Looking at the concertgoers enjoying themselves around him, he realized the space on the hill offered more opportunities for the community to gather and connect.

The City Council supported the idea, and then-city manager, John McDonough,
was charged with starting the process on something that had no plans or concepts.

Paul wasn’t the only person who saw opportunities at the City Springs site. Andy Bauman had founded the Sandy Springs Farmers Market in 2010 with Jeff
Langfelder in a bank parking lot on the corner of Sandy Springs Circle and Johnson
Ferry Road, drawing attention to the site’s possibilities.

When Bauman was elected to the City Council two years later, he began
working with other council members on the City Springs master plan.
Council set the budget for the public part of City Springs at $220 million, selecting Holder Construction to construct the buildings. Agreements were signed with private partners Carter & Associates and Selig Enterprises for the residential and
retail development.

Demolition crews began work to take down the former Target building at 235
Johnson Ferry Road in January 2014, a big step in the city’s revitalization efforts.
Public input was taken through 2015, with the name “City Springs” revealed at a
groundbreaking event in September of that year.

Four years later City Springs opened with a ribbon-cutting.

Bauman envisions more for City Springs even for its first phase. Extensive power
connections were installed next to the City Green along Mount Vernon Highway,
offering an opportunity for small retail or food spaces. He said the location for the standalone restroom facilities on that side of the City Green could be repurposed and still retain those facilities.

Attempts to develop Phase Two of City Springs have stalled due to market constraints and financing difficulties. When the council awarded a contract to a development team in June 2023, construction had been expected to begin in late 2024.

The idea is to develop the parcels the city owns just south of Mount Vernon
Road, across from City Green. The concepts call for more restaurants, experiential retail, an upscale boutique hotel, office spaces, limited residential options, additional green spaces, and shared parking facilities.

The post Sandy Springs created its downtown with City Springs appeared first on Rough Draft Atlanta.

Fulton County Commissioner Dana Barrett’s $1 million women’s health grant funding proposal was denied during a meeting on Dec. 3.

Other requests by Barrett to seek the repeal of Georgia’s six-week abortion ban and to establish a women’s commission also failed in tight votes.

“What I’m proposing today with this resolution is a $1 million healthy women Healthy Families grant program to fund nonprofit organizations that are focused on everything from women’s cancers like breast cancer and ovarian cancer to heart disease, which is the leading cause of death for women in Georgia, to domestic violence, to reproductive and maternal health,” Barrett said.

The closure of two Wellstar hospitals in Fulton County has worsened the health crisis, Barrett said.

“I am in support of women’s health and healthy families, for darn sure and but I don’t think from a public policy standpoint, this is the best way to make use of taxpayer money to have an impact on those issues,” Commissioner Bob Ellis said.

Ellis said the commission should continue to work with the Fulton County Board of Health and Grady Hospital to affect health outcomes, such as the opening of an emergency department in South Fulton.

Barrett’s proposal for a Fulton County Women’s Commission also failed.

“What I’m asking for today is that we establish a Women’s Commission for Fulton County that will advise us on policies, strategies, and community partnerships that best address gender inequity and the systemic barriers that impact women,” Barrett said.

Commissioner Mo Ivory supported the women’s commission. She said she couldn’t understand why any women on the county commission would vote against a women’s commission, as it is the one area where they should all be able to agree.

Before the vote, Pitts said commissioners could form the entity without a vote. He said he set up a women’s commission out of his elected office to advise him on women’s issues.

Barrett’s resolution to urge the General Assembly to repeal of Georgia’s six-week abortion ban across the state also failed.

She asked for passage of the resolution a few hours before the commission was scheduled to meet with a legislative delegation. Barrett said it was important to affirm that reproductive rights are human rights. The resolution would also stand against the criminalization of women seeking care for miscarriages or the doctors who provide that treatment.

Commissioner Khadijah Abdur-Rahman called the measure a “feel-good” resolution. She said she was pro-choice when she walked the streets of Washington, D.C., in support, and when pregnant people with no place to live called her county commission office.

“I personally don’t feel that this resolution does anything to change what has happened at the state,” Abdur-Rahman said.

Testifying before the General Assembly and having conversations with the legislators who made the decision to approve the abortion ban could make a difference, Abdur-Rahman said.

The post Fulton County commissioner proposal for women’s health funding fails appeared first on Rough Draft Atlanta.