Cluster Advisory

Cluster Advisory Teams play an important role in creating opportunities for collaboration, communication, engagement, and shared learning across schools and throughout each cluster.

Purpose and Role

Cluster Advisory Teams serve as cluster‑level advisory bodies that help maintain and update a shared cluster strategic plan, so elementary, middle, and high schools in the same feeder pattern are working toward common priorities. They review cluster‑wide needs, surface issues or opportunities that affect multiple schools, and advise district leaders on supports needed to advance student achievement across the full cluster.

Membership and Structure

A Cluster Advisory Team typically includes a principal or school leadership designee from each school in the cluster, one GO Team member from each school chosen by that school's GO Team, representatives from local charter schools serving that area, and a small number of community partners. This structure ensures that decisions and recommendations reflect voices from school leadership, governance teams, and community stakeholders, rather than a single school alone.

Meetings and Logistics

Cluster Advisory meetings follow a common district schedule, with several meetings each year that bring all clusters together for a general session plus time for individual CAT breakout work on cluster business. Agendas often include reviewing progress on cluster strategic goals, discussing School‑Based Solution proposals that impact multiple schools, and identifying shared needs for resources or supports.

We look forward to another productive year of learning together and we appreciate your commitment to your cluster and the Atlanta Public Schools community.

This year, Cluster Advisory will use a refreshed meeting format designed to make our time together more focused, interactive, and useful across all nine clusters. We will convene virtually three times during the school year, with each meeting organized around one of the district’s strategic focus areas and a guiding question to frame our discussion.  All meetings start at 5:00 p.m. and last for 90 minutes.