Fulton County Schools rejected a $10 million offer for Spalding Drive Elementary School from a community charter school group, instead proposing to turn it into a teaching museum after school ends this year.
“We have just recently undergone a very tense and heavily debated school closure process, so we owe it to the public to start talking publicly about what we’re going to do with the properties that we have,” Fulton County Schools (FCS) Superintendent Mike Looney said during the school board’s May 6 work session.
Chief of Operations Noel Maloof told the school board staff is proposing to use the Spalding Drive facility as the site for its archives and teaching museum by August 2026. Additional space would be used for administrative functions beginning in July.
“This is not just a missed opportunity—it’s financial malpractice,” Raymond Grote, a member of the Save Spalding Committee board that is working to create a charter school, said. “At a time when Fulton is laying off staff and cutting student-facing services, it is expanding administrative office space. That says everything.”
Grote said the opening of a charter school would allow the school district to retain an estimated $3.67 million annually in local per-pupil funding without spending funds to educate an estimated 300 charter school students.
“Our team is looking into the future and our needs for bringing the teaching museums and district archive into a single, more central location,” Maloof said. “Our staff recommends moving the Teaching Museum North and Teaching Museum South, along with the Fulton County Schools archives, to the Spalding Drive Elementary facility.”
Regional staff members at the facility will include special needs and social workers, Maloof said.
The Save Spalding Drive Elementary Committee in February filed a letter of intent to open a charter school. The committee sought an agreement to use the Spalding Drive Elementary facilities for its school.
“It’s just a financially bad decision on top of a poor decision in closing the school. Closing the school didn’t accomplish any of the goals that they really set out,” Grote told Rough Draft Atlanta. “They should be closing larger schools. They shouldn’t get rid of a good asset that was producing good outcomes.”
Grote said the school district told the community how dilapidated the building was and how much it costs to maintain, but is now spending funds to convert it and then, on an ongoing basis, sink more money into it, he said.
Maloof’s facilities’ updates also included plans for Conley Hill, Parklane, and Bethune Elementary Schools, and the former Westlake High School.
Conley Hills Elementary was designated for surplus and disposal by December 2026. An appraisal will be sought by October, with a surplus declaration by the school board by May 2026, according to Maloof’s presentation to the board.
Like Spalding Drive, Parklane Elementary School is set to close after this school year. It would also be set aside for workspace and meeting space for administrative functions beginning in July.
Maloof said staff would seek school board approval during the 2025-2026 school year to close Bethune Elementary, with a study conducted for its potential future use.
The school district plans to sustain the former Westlake High School facility during the next academic year and study future use possibilities. Maloof said the plan calls for a decision to made within 18 months to demolish or repurpose the facility.
