ATLANTA — As most students get ready to head back to school, the first charter school in the City of Atlanta is celebrating 25 years of serving the East Lake community.
Channel 2’s Lori Wilson visited the Drew Charter School and learned it’s maintained a 98% graduation rate.
“I was a Drew baby, which means I was in sheltering arms, I went to school from K-12, I knew the same people,” Drew Charter graduate Ariel Gray said.
Gray was a 2024 graduate. She told Wilson that Drew helped truly prepare her for success.
[DOWNLOAD: Free WSB-TV News app for alerts as news breaks]
“Meeting the new counselors, having somebody to lean on, just being in a community of loving people,” Gray described.
Now, Drew Charter is celebrating 25 years of breathing new life into East Lake.
TRENDING STORIES:
- Back 2 School 2025: When does your school district go back?
- Clark Howard: How to shop for back to school supplies on a budget
- PHOTOS: Best 25 public high schools in Georgia
Ilham Askia, President and CEO of the East Lake Community Foundation, said the school is very important in the neighborhood.
“Drew is one of our biggest assets in the East Lake community,” Askia told Channel 2 Action News.
The foundation is one of Drew’s strongest financial supporters. Askia said the group gives $300,000 per year to Drew Charter School graduates.
Askia pointed to the school’s 98% graduation rate as a key to the growth and stability of the East Lake community.
Peter McKnight, head of the Drew Charter School, agrees.
“A strong school is really a strong cornerstone of a good neighborhood,” McKnight said.
In what has been an underserved community, McKnight said the first charter school in Atlanta, Drew, made early education and career or college counseling a priority.
“We can follow them through, we can smooth out transitions that typically could trip students and families up between elementary and middle school or middle and high school,” McKnight said.
“We are like this ecosystem of good crazy. I know Congressman John Lewis used to say ‘good trouble,’ we are just good crazy, we just have al of these people who want to see people win,” Askia said.
[SIGN UP: WSB-TV Daily Headlines Newsletter]
©2025 Cox Media Group
