Fresh Look

chief of police and 68 officers, who have been trained specifically by grade level, and will work with students to prevent bad behavior and decisions before they happen.

“If we want to break the pampers to prison pipeline for black and brown kids, which is really an issue in APS, we have to have people who do the preventive work so the bad decisions never happen,”

Carstarphen said. “I don’t want our kids to fear the police, I want them to respect police. They need to have a school environment where the police are seen as an ally and not an enemy.”

There are also big changes ahead for Intown’s “Grady cluster” of schools. The defunct, sprawling Howard High School campus in the Old Fourth Ward will be transformed into a new middle school

MLK Jr. Middle School gets colorful revamp for new year

When students arrived last month for the first day of class at Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School in Grant Park, they found a freshly redesigned campus created by local architecture firm Perkins+Will.

“Middle school is a vital bridge between elementary school and high school – it is also a period when students, often for the first time in their lives, begin actively seeking a sense of purpose and place,” said Paul Brown, principal of Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School, which serves sixth to eighth grade students. “Our new facility is a physical representation of our entire school community’s purpose and place.” for students currently attending Inman Middle School. Morningside Elementary School will take over the Inman building for more capacity.

Originally built in 1973, the school features the Brutalist style of architecture that was popular in educational facilities at the time: emphasizing large, exposed concrete exteriors and minimizing windows and exposure to outside light. The new design approach recognizes the original architecture style, while giving the school a fresh and open look.

The revamped campus includes 175,000 square feet of renovated structure and 17,000 square feet of newly built facilities. Major upgrades include a more defined and completely reoriented main entry, new athletic fields and a new administration building, a new auditorium/theater space, a new student commons, and bringing more natural daylight into existing classrooms. Additionally, the facility was redesigned with energy efficiency in mind. The revised structure now consumes 35 percent less energy compared to an average existing building of same type and location.

A silhouette of Dr. King’s face is subtly incorporated in the windows of the school’s administration wing, while one major hallway has an extensive, handpainted mural of the faces and quotes of civil and human rights leaders.

Grady High School will see an estimated $22 million vertical expansion to create 18 new classrooms, three new laboratories and a new administrative suite.

Atlanta is one of the top 10 cities with the longest commutes in the country, according to the U.S. Census American Community Survey. With the back-toschool period now in full swing, and more cars on the road, commuting times are back on the rise.

Georgia’s Clean Air Force is offering six common sense tips for saving time and money on your commute, while contributing to cleaner air in the metro area.

“There are many ways to make the back-to-school driving season a little less stressful on metro Atlanta motorists,” said Pamela Earl, Mobile & Area Source program manager, Environmental Protection Division. “By taking advantage of technology and practicing common sense driving habits, everyone can play a part in minimizing the impact of harmful vehicle emissions on our environment.”

Here are some helpful tips for your commute:

►Reroute Your Commute. Inevitably, traffic in metro Atlanta becomes congested as the school year begins in early August. To avoid getting stuck in traffic, try staggering your commute. Ask your boss if you can arrive for work later in the morning, when school-related traffic is minimal. If your employer allows telecommuting, you can opt to skip the traffic entirely.

►Take a Dip in the Pool. Set up a back-to-school carpool on Facebook with your neighbors. This way, you will only need to make one trip to school each week, instead of five. You can save even more money by carpooling to work on the days that you don’t lead the kids’ carpool.

►Don’t be an American Idle. For parents who are waiting to pick up their kids, it might seem convenient to keep your vehicle running, but it is not. Not only does idling waste gas and money, it can be extremely harmful to the environment. For every 10 minutes of idling cut from your commute, you can save one pound of harmful carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere. The rule of thumb is to turn off your engine if you’ll be idling for more than 30 seconds.

►Map with an App. A good way to avoid school traffic is to use a smartphone app to explore alternate routes that bypass trouble spots. Apple and Android have a number of free apps that were designed to find the most efficient and fastest way to get to your destination. In fact, the Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) now has a data-sharing partnership with Waze, the free, real-time crowdsourcing app. GDOT is providing construction and road-closure data to Waze, which helps reroute drivers to a less congested route.

►Lighten Your Load. Evaluate what you have in your car. The heavier the vehicle, the more fuel it consumes. Studies show that removing just 100 pounds of extra weight from your vehicle can increase fuel economy up to 2 percent. Don’t carry bulky items like sports equipment unless you need to, and remove the roof rack unless you plan on using it.

►Maximize Performance. Late summer is also a good time to have your car inspected by your local mechanic. He or she can check for malfunctioning oxygen sensors, underinflated tires, clogged filters and other factors that can reduce fuel economy.

For additional information, visit cleanairforce.com.