North Atlanta High School will officially begin the 2012-2013 school year on August 6, with many administrative and upcoming physical changes.

Principal Mark MyGrant announced his retirement early in the school year, after a 33-year tenure in education. Since then, Atlanta Public Schools has launched a national search for a replacement, but has yet to name our new principal.

Center for the Arts Academy Leader of nine years, Reginald Colbert, announced his retirement May 23, which came as a surprise to many parents and students. Colbert has admirably led the Performing Arts SLC since 2003, working with countless arts students.

Colbert has quite an impressive resume, attending the University of Georgia on a music scholarship, then attending Vander Cook College of Music to earn his Master’s in Music Education.

After a period as Band Director at Sutton Middle School, Colbert came to North Atlanta in 1989. Until 2003, Colbert served as the Director of Jazz Band and Jazz Studies.

Parents, teachers, and students alike are expressing their sentiments over Colbert’s retirement. Performing Arts Sophomore, Iris Tinsley, says, “I heard about him leaving, and I was devastated. In my first year at North Atlanta, I experienced so much under him and his school, that all my views on the arts shifted, and my passion for them grew. He made a huge difference in how I’ll fight to succeed with my passion for the next three years of my life.”

Setting the precedent for a successful arts academy across the state, Colbert’s great progress with the Center for the Arts will never be forgotten.

International Studies teacher, Dahlia Williams, will be retiring as well.

Williams will be missed by the North Atlanta community. International Studies student, Chaz Torres, remarks, “Mrs. Williams was a one of a kind teacher. I will never have a teacher like her again. She taught me many life lessons, and I am really grateful to have been able to learn from her before she left.”

In addition to these changes within the school building, this will also be North Atlanta High School’s last year on the Kingswood Lane-Northside Drive campus. The school is currently situated on a 17-acre campus,  which includes one of Atlanta Public School’s three planetariums, a baseball field, and a regulation soccer field and track.

In the 2013-2014 school year, the campus will relocate to 4111 Northside Drive, 3.6 miles north of the current location. Atlanta Public Schools bought the 56-acre IBM complex, across from Mt. Paran Church, for $56.2 million in early 2011. The construction company J.E. Dunn was hired, and “APS anticipates 18 months to two years for completion,” the North Atlanta High School Foundation reports.

The featured picture for this article is what the IBM complex currently looks like. Atlanta Public Schools hired the architectural firm Cooper Cary to oversee the design of the new school.

While it is not confirmed on what the current campus will become after the high school moves due to a changed administration, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution says a new middle school will take its place, “Once the new campus is built — a likely two-year-process — North Atlanta will be turned into a second middle school, relieving an overcrowded Sutton Middle School on Powers Ferry Road near Chastain Park.”

(Sources: North Atlanta High School Foundation, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Wikipedia, North Atlanta High School Center for the Arts)