First graduates of Atlanta Girls’ School aim to save it from closing

ATLANTA — An all-girls private school in Atlanta told Channel 2 Action News on Tuesday that it was shutting down due to financial troubles.

On Wednesday, alumni from the school’s first graduating class spoke to Channel 2′s Berndt Petersen about the pending closure, saying the school will always be near and dear to them.

Anna Pless Peel said she remembers her time at the school like it was yesterday.

“The day I walked through those doors was the beginning of the best time of my life,” Pless Peel said.

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During her days at the Atlanta Girls’ School in Buckhead, Pless Peel was a member of the inaugural class 24 years ago. She told Channel 2 Action News that her mother was one of the school’s founders and does not want to see it go.

“All the girls are sad about it,” parent Anissa Brown said.

Parents and their daughters were reeling from the announcement that AGS would close permanently at the end of the current school year, May 24.

Administrators said re-enrollments at the sixth through 12th grade private school for this fall are way down, and that a combined fundraising and cost-cutting effort fell short.

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While AGS helps families apply to other private schools, Pless Peel has been working the phones. She is among a group of more than 50 Atlanta Girls’ School graduates from near and far who are trying to find a way to financially turn the tide.

Her message to faculty, parents, and especially the girls---is to stay tuned.

As previously reported, the Atlanta Girls’ School on Northside Parkway in Buckhead, will shut down at the end of the academic year in May, the school’s website shows.

In a statement online, the school said efforts to cut costs and improve fundraising had been unsuccessful.

“Despite exploring various options, implementing cost-cutting measures, and intensifying our fundraising efforts, like other small, independent schools, AGS continues to face many economic challenges,” the school wrote. “Those challenges coupled with a diminishing demand for single-gender education have created an unsustainable financial path forward into the 2024-25 school year.”

Discussing the importance of the school, Pless Peel said having a girls’ school in Atlanta was key.

“You can’t have a big city without a girls school. We have HBCUs. Big universities. Small colleges. Big public high schools and large private high schools. We need a girls’ school,” Pless Peel said.

Pless Peel said the group of graduates she’s in touch with aren’t sure what they’re going to do to save the school, but they have to try.

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