Atlanta Public Schools hold State of the District

ATLANTA - About 76 percent of students in the Atlanta Public School District are eligible for free and reduced price lunch. That is according to district officials who held their State of the District event Friday.

APS officials said their goal is to help their students by making schools a central part of the community.

Part of that means opening affordable health centers like the one that opened Friday morning at Hollis Innovation Academy.

Atlanta Public Schools Superintendent Meria Carstarphen said the district has also started to rethink how it uses resources.

“Instead of shuttering a building, maybe it needs to be a community center... Instead of leaving some beautiful old buildings offline, is there a way for us to think about neighborhoods that need affordable housing and we can partner with that,” said Carstarphen.

A bit of good news from the event was that Atlanta high school graduation rates are up more than 20 percent.