But whether the two bodies can work together to achieve their mutual goal is uncertain. Hesitant school board members expressed their concerns during individual meetings with East Lake Community Foundation representatives, prompting Greg Giornelli, the foundation's executive director, to retract the proposal in a May 13 letter. We're moving on. The parties to this relationship don't know each other well enough to do the whole deal right now. Few would argue that a quality public school isn't a key ingredient of any thriving neighborhood, or that a good school can augment a neighborhood's rejuvenation.
Good schools are key to helping build neighborhoods.
No community is healthy without high-quality schools. But the shared responsibility for putting the schools there isn't without its strains. When plans to remake the nation's oldest public-housing project, Techwood Homes, came together in the early 1990s, school officials already had planned to upgrade or replace the neighborhood's Fowler Elementary School. But the Atlanta Housing Authority's larger designs pushed them into a long and arduous collaboration. But the school board's commitment solved a piece of the puzzle for Centennial Place's private developer, Integral Group's Egbert Perry.