2025 in Review

Dear friends,

This year has passed by so quickly! As I reflect on 2025, I think about our region’s remarkable growth and potential. What stands out most is the way our community continues to show up with passion, clarity, and a shared belief that every student in Metro Atlanta deserves access to a trajectory-changing public school. Together with you all, we are building the conditions for lasting change. 

This year RedefinED Atlanta’s investments have not only deepened our work, but also amplified the voices and leadership of those closest to our schools’ challenges and opportunities: 

• We awarded $150K to local organizations, powered by community voice. Kendall Rae’s Green Heart, Raising Expectations, and Sheltering Arms each received $50,000 A.R.I.S.E. Parent Power grants for 2025–26.
• We invested $100K in community engagement. Georgia Appleseed Center for Law and Justice, Melanated PEARL Inc, Jonesboro High School, and Clayton County Public Schools each received $25,000 Clayton Communities in Action grants for 2025–26.

The RedefinED Atlanta team evolved to better meet the needs of our community:

• We added four new high-impact staff members. Hans Grohs, Nina Lyons, Norledia Moody, and Trea Vance will bolster our capacity to serve more communities and deepen the way we support our internal team and community partners.
• Our VP of Schools and Talent, Emily Castillo Leon, won the 2025 Diversity in Business Champions Award for working to help all students get the education they need to compete for jobs of the future. 
• Our Associate Vice President of Development, Tiffany Scott, graduated from the 2025 Equity in Philanthropy Cohort with Rockwood Leadership Institute.
• Our Executive Director, Angira Scuesi, was named in the 2025 Atlanta 500: Education and Healthcare. 

We established and grew programs that serve more students:

• We kicked off our DC360 Collaborative in October to reimagine what’s possible for students and families in Atlanta.
• Tapestry expanded to Clayton County. Local charter authorization is a critical lever for expanding access to high-quality public education options. More than 220 Clayton County families expressed interest in Tapestry’s inclusive, student-centered model, which has a proven track record of supporting both neurodivergent and neurotypical students.
• East Point’s Ethos Classical welcomed its first middle schoolers. The K–5 school, founded in 2019, recently launched Ethos Middle School, which will grow to include grades 5–8.
• A healthcare-focused charter school will launch in 2026. The Academy for Innovation in Medicine will be a tuition-free public charter school; its charter petition was approved by the State Charter Schools Commission of Georgia Board of Commissioners this past August.

And we prompted important discussions with the community:

• Atlanta Public Schools’ Student Advisory Council brought student voice to the Board Candidate Forum. APS students and community members made their voices heard at the “Voices of the Vote” student-led candidate forum, held at Georgia State University.
• Buckhead Parents Expressed Concern over the Atlanta Public Schools Consolidation Plan. APS is grappling with a $135 million budget deficit. However, the way the school system has proposed fixing this has troubled some families.
• Teacher retention efforts got a much-needed boost. APS raised teacher salaries by 11 percent, boosted support staff salaries by 10 percent, and set a goal to have the average salary reach $100,000 by 2030. As it relates to teacher retention, these steps are welcome, but they are also insufficient if we want to keep our most impactful teachers in the classroom.

The year certainly hasn’t been easy, and our progress is slower than we hoped for, but I’m proud to look back and see all the positive impact we created together. Behind the scenes, we’ve also been working hard on refreshing and reimaging how we work to meet the needs of this growing community. I’m excited to start sharing our visions for the coming years and work alongside you with even stronger purpose, alignment, and intentionality. 

Together, let’s redefine what education looks like in Metro Atlanta.

All my best,

Angira