Hold your fire: DeKalb school board delays vote on facilities plan until early January
Update from DeKalb County:
At tonight’s meeting, the DeKalb County Board of Education is expected to delay its first vote on a working draft of the 2016-17 Proposed School Organization until Jan. 7. A second vote on the final draft will take place on Jan. 23 as previously reported.
The delay allows the DeKalb County School District staff time to incorporate already received public suggestions and refine the working draft. The Board vote on Jan. 7 is to share the revised draft for public comment. The public information sessions will run from Jan. 8 through Jan. 17 across the five academic regions of the district. Additionally, the public may email ideas, comments and suggestions.
After the public information sessions, the working draft will be put into final form for the Board’s approval on Jan. 23. That document will be sent to the Georgia Department of Education for its initial review.
The “proposed school organization” records the schools a school district expects to operate in the coming years. The document forms the basis for development of a very detailed plan called the “Local Five-Year Facility Plan” or LFP. The LFP provides the district’s justification to participate in the state capital outlay program. Currently, DCSD is eligible to receive up to $40 million in additional funds dependent upon the state approval of plan.
Back to the original post:
The DeKalb Board of Education votes tonight on a controversial draft five-year facilities plan from Superintendent Cheryl Atkinson.
You can read the AJC story about today’s 6 p.m. meeting here. The story quotes a parent from Midway Elementary School who was upset that her south DeKalb school is slated to close in the plan. And the story talks about unhappy parents at Evansdale Elementary in north DeKalb whose children shift from Lakeside High to Tucker under the plan.
The public has until mid January to comment on the plan, which goes to a final vote later that month.
The plan has alarmed many parents, although one of the more controversial aspects — closing three south DeKalb middle schools to save money and sending the students to high school campuses — has already been scratched.
But some parents remain unhappy with the proposed school closings and redistricting in the draft that will be voted on tonight.
Here is an op-ed by two DeKalb parent leaders from the Evansdale Elementary community:
By Jennifer Hatfield and Robin Malinovsky
As a parent, there is little that ranks above a solid education for your child. When choosing a home, we also choose the schools in which it resides because the school impacts home value, taxes, and most of all, the education of your child. The neighborhood then becomes a family of friendships with whom we and our children share a 12-year educational experience.
Superintendent of DeKalb schools, Dr. Cheryl Atkinson, is about to take these very same communities of nearly 100,000-plus kids and parents in DeKalb County and shatter them through a school redistricting and reorganization plan.
She presented this proposal at a November Board of Education meeting, outlining new “facilities” plans for the DeKalb County School District in the coming years. This plan includes redistricting and school closures, beyond the redistricting already endured two years ago. Dr. Atkinson wants to fast-track approval by calling for a vote today — without any public input.
Two years ago, when the system embarked on the tenuous and expensive process of redistricting, promises and assurances were made stating DCSD would get it right so we wouldn’t have to revisit the subject. We were also assured a community component, meant to respect the nuances of each neighborhood and community.
Dr. Atkinson is now reneging on all of those pledges. The district paid tens of thousands of dollars to a firm of expertise for that redistricting. Why is that result being pushed aside? How can they justify that “waste” of money while under the ongoing and watchful eye of Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS), which is tasked with reviewing the DCSD’s accreditation?
We were informed that, in order to maximize state funding for our schools, each needed to have no less than 450 pupils — in fact, this was the strongest justifications for redistricting. Yet, this proposed plan drops enrollment in many schools to approximately 350 pupils. The administration has also promised to maintain county buildings and facilities, regardless of whether they are in use, to protect their investment. However, dozens of SPLOST IV maintenance projects have been stricken from schools now slated for closure.
Finally, the school board approved a policy prohibiting the issuance of bonds to expedite construction. Now the board members are being asked to reverse their vote, just months later, and increase debt in order to move forward. This is fiscal irresponsibility.
Residents and parents have been told, time and time again, the district is focused on student achievement and creating high-performance learning cultures in all schools. This plan is being used to tear down what is working well simply to level the playing field. DeKalb should learn from successful schools and model those processes at other schools. Instead, the BOE wants to shift the high-performing students out of nationally ranked schools and send them to lower-performing schools. This doesn’t achieve goals, it only hurts the students.
Given this district’s track record of missteps, incompetence and recent legal woes, the fast-tracking of this ill-conceived plan (without any regard for community stakeholders or even the administration’s own cited priorities), would not be in the best interest of the taxpayers, parents and, most importantly, the children of DeKalb County. We ask that the DCSD to form a plan demonstrating the road to financial stability. We need a fiscally responsible proposal that doesn’t include increasing the debt, and belittling our schools and neighborhoods, in order to move forward.
–From Maureen Downey, for the AJC Get Schooled blog
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102 comments Add your comment
Snarkysnake
December 10th, 2012
6:37 am
Still wondering how the Charter Schools Amendment passed? It was parents like the ones that wrote the above,not the apathetic ones that carried it to fruition. They see the truth (as detailed above).
We need to elect superintendents.Then they have to look out for people other than themselves.
redweather
December 10th, 2012
6:38 am
That is some wooden prose.
Cindy Lutenbacher
December 10th, 2012
6:41 am
One thing to remember is that Dr. Atkinson is a Broad Superintendents Academy alum. Broad (as in Eli Broad, rhymes with “road”) efforts are ever and always about support for corporations, not education of children. The two have conflicting end goals.
Dunwoody Mom
December 10th, 2012
6:50 am
Far be it from me to take up for Dr. Atkinson, but the MGT Consulting company, during the 2020 Vision project, did suggest that the school district revisit redistricting and consolidation on a yearly basis. Many school district around DeKalb do this yearly, but because DeKalb has, in the past, just put redistricting together “willy nilly”, we are having a hard time with the redistricting process. I do have some concerns with this plan but there are schools that are terribly over-crowded and some that are very under-enrolled. I’m not sure there is any plan that won’t make parents unhappy.
Concernedmom30329
December 10th, 2012
6:58 am
The request to issue bonds is very problematic. For all the reasons listed in the article, PLUS the system is saying if they expedite the projects there will be a need for FIVE more staff people. Five people paid for 5 years.
Wilbur
December 10th, 2012
7:00 am
So since all parents will be unhappy with any school redistricting plan, let’s ignore them and do we like?
Yep, that’s moving schools in the right direction.
Mom of 3
December 10th, 2012
7:02 am
Dunwoody Mom- you speak the truth. Redistricting is a realty of public school. Unless you choose to live in a very small district, you can not be surprised when it comes up. There will always be someone who does not like it. At leat Dr. A is making an attempt at getting funding that is desperately needed.
Concernedmom30329
December 10th, 2012
7:13 am
Dunwoody Mom
MGT recommended tweaking not redoing their work on a yearly basis. This plan essentially redoes their work. We have a report due to the state — use the MGT plan and move on.
The major challenge in DeKalb is that the population center has shifted. Where once the central and northern DeKalb schools had lots of empty seats and the south DeKalb schools were way overcrowded, for the most part this has reversed.
However, because the DeKalb school board is so political both the MGT plan and the current SPLOST list were put together with getting 5 board votes in mind. Therefore, each board member gets a little something, even if it it didn’t make sense.
When all the plans in the current proposal are completed, there will be about 1300 EMPTY high school seats in what DeKalb calls Region 4 which includes SWD, Lithonia, MLK and Miller Grove. Three of the four (MLK, SWD and Miller Grove) have just broken ground on long promised additions. However, the additions aren’t really needed anymore given all the excess capacity in S. DeKalb. Finally, just to the north of this cluster Redan High School is getting 500 more seats.
What a mess.
Concernedmom30329
December 10th, 2012
7:19 am
Mom of 3
Do you understand why this plan is needed? It is because the state penalizes systems for empty seats when it comes to receiving state assistance for capital improvements. If DCSS was really serious about catching as much of that money as possible, really radical changes are needed. And not some silly 6-12 model, but rather the closing of high schools. It is distasteful, but what is needed.
DCSS currently has 2000 empty high school seats or there about, with this plan, the number actually grows to 5000 empty seats because we are adding thousands of new seats! In the end, I imagine the state won’t be so eager to help fund new construction. Would you be?
Dunwoody Mom
December 10th, 2012
7:19 am
@Concernedmom30329…below is the link to the Master Presentation. There is nothing about “tweaking”. It specifically states :Annual evaluation of enrollment data to determine redistricting and consolidation needs”. I have a different view than you do, I don’t claim things as “political” if they don’t reflect my vision. I do have some disagreement with the 2020 Vision, but I feel that it is a good guideline for the district. Perfect? No. Nothing is.
Dunwoody Mom
December 10th, 2012
7:20 am
http://www.dekalb.k12.ga.us/www/documents/vision-2020/master-plan-presentation-(2011-08-01).pdf
Tucker Mom
December 10th, 2012
7:22 am
Well said!
Our school in Tucker is being consolidated with an elementary school in Stone Mountain. Three other elementary schools are much closer. This plan doesn’t make much sense to me.
Dunwoody Mom
December 10th, 2012
7:28 am
@Conceredmom, re-reading my post, it sounds as if I were a little snarky in my response, I apologize.
I don’t disagree with you about the “empty seats”, but then again the school district decided to get “specific” with the projects slated for SPLOST IV, rather than leaving some wiggle room to be able to address needs as they come up. I was against this specificity, but was told it was so that the district could be “transparent”.
The “extra” seat issue due to construction projects is not just in Region 4. The new Chamblee High School is slated to hold 1600 students. Today, there are a litle over 1,260 enrolled at CHS. Cross Keys also has about 200 available seats. Where is the plan for these 2 schools?
Mountain Man
December 10th, 2012
7:43 am
That is a good example of the intricacies of the English language that makes it hard:
How do you pronounce “road”? – now add a “b” to it – how do you pronounce “broad”?
Atlanta Mom
December 10th, 2012
7:52 am
Seems like a lot of the problem can be identified in the first sentence of this article. The board is voting on a FIVE year plan??? When it comes to education most parents are looking more than FIVE years down the road.
Concerned DeKalb Mom
December 10th, 2012
8:03 am
Dunwoody Mom–in conversations with DCSS staff two years ago, when my community was torn apart by redistricting, staff assured me–and others–that after such dramatic changes, only tweaking would be necessary every 2 years or so. And interestingly, “tweaking” was the word that was used with me, too…curious that some of us were told the same thing, regardless of the language in the MGT plan.
This new plan is nonsensical in some parts of the county. Fernbank receives a new elementary school but cannot come close to filling it. Some students in Dunwoody are asked to double their drive times to elementary school and bypass schools clearly closer to them. Some Livsey students are asked to become part of a school that is miles and miles away from where they are right now. These are not insignificant nor logical changes.
Truth in Moderation
December 10th, 2012
8:06 am
“Residents and parents have been told, time and time again, the district is focused on student achievement and creating high-performance learning cultures in all schools. This plan is being used to tear down what is working well simply to level the playing field.”
This is the hidden agenda of public schools. Parents, wake up!
“The Dark Intentions of Public Schooling”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFlvkwXCQco
Concernedmom30329
December 10th, 2012
8:08 am
Also, this plan has Laurel Ridge closing, but still Fernbank is only three quarters full. It appears that Fernbank gets the most demographically desirable parts of Laurel Ridge with everyone else sent to McClendon or Sagamore Hills. Isn’t that strange? In other parts of the system students are going to be bussed up to 6 miles to get to school, but Fernbank is being protected with Sagamore and McClendon end up being pretty over crowded?
Something stinks on Mountain Industrial?
Truth in Moderation
December 10th, 2012
8:21 am
“Compulsory Schooling – Mass Manipulation History”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7bYy-VHKkg
Another Voice
December 10th, 2012
8:48 am
And they plan to rebuild Austin Elementary to house 900 +/- students – instead of finding a way to re-use the facility on Chamblee-Dunwoody Rd. that has been used as temporary space (such as housing Chamblee Middle School students when it was rebuilt).
How about this instead: reopen the Chamblee-Dunwoody property, make it the annex for Austin and have the 4 and 5th grade classes there. Don’t spend to build another TajMahal facility. Sure it’s not an ELEGANT solution, but a heck of a lot more cost effective.
And why do we need to continue construction on high schools in South DeKalb if those are already under capacity?
It appears that DCSS can’t figure out which end is up. They close schools two years ago, but build more onto schools that have open seating capacity.
Yeah, I’m thrilled to keep paying taxes in this county for a school system that is not only broken, but too dumb to educate children.
Hamilton
December 10th, 2012
8:49 am
I think the Superintendent is rushing this through before the Board changes in composition. If the Board tended towards majority ethical behavior, they would say “wait until January” for any new policies and decisions.
I’m asking a little too much. Heck, I ask too much of this Board of Directors charged with the oversight of nearly $1B of spending and seeing that 95,000+ students are given an “adequate” education. They have clearly not been up to the task. They haven’t been for years.
It’s high time this “District” was broken up and that may be next on the General Assembly’s radar.
Dunwoody Mom
December 10th, 2012
8:59 am
re: the Chamblee-Dunwoody school site…Last year there was talk of demolishing the school site as the building is uninhabitable. Now, it appears, based on comments from Mr. Wilkins from the October board meeting that the district is looking into “repurposing” the property. I have not been able to find out any further info on this.
Concerned DeKalb Mom
December 10th, 2012
9:11 am
The Chamblee-Dunwoody school site is completely unusable as is. Millions would need to go into making it anything other than a storage facility for the school system. They would need to completely tear down and completely rebuild. How many years has it sat on that site now without anyone moving in or out of the building? Disgraceful. They should sell the property to the City of Dunwoody and move on.
worried about the numbers
December 10th, 2012
9:15 am
I understand the need to make sacrifices. I get the point that there is state money to be had. And if someone told me that closing Livsey and Evansdale and all the other changes would result in significant improvement in the classrooms, I’d be ok to make that sacrifice. But I have NO REASON to believe this plan is well thought through. It’s poorly written, there are no real cost data, data on the impact of these moves on the tax base (home values around the good schools that are being redistricted and eliminated will go down, no doubt about it).There are no data on transportation – fuel is not going to be any cheaper and kids who currently walk to school will need to be bused far away. Is the state funding and the increased cost of accellerating buildings really going to offset these other costs. Heck, this time around the plan doesn’t even have goals! Last time we were given some goals (like the 450 students per school, minimizing transportation distances, keeping feeders intact). Now? Not one goal, no mention of how the proposed actions will improve learning. Nothing. This plan needs to be opposed because it is ill conceived, and being pushed through with an outgoing board at a time when the adminstration hasn’t even answered the questions about whether they really cut central office staff. That’s why the old plan needs to stay in place. Yes, we need to revisit redistricting on a periodic basis, but it needs to be done carefully. This is nonsense.
alm
December 10th, 2012
9:41 am
Concernedmom30329, Fernbank is the golden school and will always be protected.
DeKalb is squeak wheel system and some schools know how to work it.
The Cross Keys district has the most overcrowding at the elementary level with no relief in sight. Cary Reynolds 124% capacity, Dresden 124% capacity, Montclair 145% capacity, Oakcliff Theme 97% capacity, Woodward 124% capacity.
alm
December 10th, 2012
9:43 am
That should say squeaky wheel system.
Private Citizen
December 10th, 2012
9:53 am
Hey folks, just to say: this looks like the new madness sweeping the land, and not just in Dekalb County:
closing… middle schools to save money and sending the students to high school campuses
Private Citizen
December 10th, 2012
9:55 am
First they got rid of 4,000 teachers in Georgia. Next, they thinned the main office staff in districts. Now, it is consolidating and combining upper / lower schools for the purpose of saving money.
A divided APS school board decides today whether to dump embattled school chief Erroll Davis | Get Schooled
December 10th, 2012
10:01 am
[...] While the DeKalb school board will vote on a controversial five year plan that includes school closings and redistricting, the Atlanta Board of Education will take up superintendent Erroll B. Davis’ contract extension at 3 p.m. [...]
Private Citizen
December 10th, 2012
10:08 am
Americans are getting farmed / harvested like cattle by centralised power, and Obama is their good corporate manager. The joke is the propagandists have people thinking Obama is a socialist and have the ignorant brainwashed public going around repeating this. Spoke to a friend via telephone yesterday. Him and the corporate-manager wife go over to Scandinavia every couple of years and charter a sailboat and captain for a week. He commented how healthy, wealthy, well-adjusted the people were there, and the children well behaved. They practice a combination of social public services combined with competitive free-enterprise private wealth business. Here in the U. S., its like we’re penned up chickens on the chicken farm, being exploited and harvested by the corporate power interests and the Americans are walking around telling each other that they’re better than the Scandinavian system. They’re sure not consolidating any upper / lower schools over there because they’re so desperate to maintain basic functioning. Meanwhile, we’re being deranged by propaganda and incoherence.
bu2
December 10th, 2012
10:42 am
@Concerned
If you believed they weren’t going to do some significant changes in the future you weren’t paying attention. They are moving to 900 student elementary schools as they replace schools, which is going to continue to require significant, if not major, changes. There were several schools that were initially going to be closed, but they changed their mind, basically, because they didn’t have a rational plan to deal with the students. Livesy and Rock Bridge were two of those. It was obvious those would be closed at some point (not that I am saying sending the Livesy students so far away is good, but at least there is some coherent idea behind it-building a new school for Smoke Rise).
Your comments reflect the all too common blind bias of 30329. Sagamore Hills doesn’t need to be overcrowded. They could simply move students to neighborhing Briar Vista and Laurel Ridge. But then those students would go to “inferior” elementary schools and to Druid Hills HS & MS instead of Lakeside/Henderson Mill. Yet somehow in your mind its someone else’s influence that creates the situation.
As for Fernbank, they have grown from 430 to 700 students over the last 10 years, so it would be silly to build a 900 student school and put 900 students in it the first year. You need to allow for some growth unless there are reasons to think it will stop.
I do agree its strange they are continuing a 600 seat addition at SW Dekalb HS which they project will leave them with 600 empty seats when it is done. And its strange they talked about combining middle schools with high schools when 1 out of McNair, Cedar Grove, Columbia or Towers could be closed with plenty of empty seats left over.
bu2
December 10th, 2012
10:44 am
@concerned
Laurel Ridge is not closed under the plan. It looks like they made an error in their attendance figures so that may be why you think that. There are several continuing schools that have zeros in their projected attendance. It was a sloppy document.
Local girl
December 10th, 2012
10:47 am
As I read it, the new plan does not call for closing Laurel Ridge, but does call for expanding the Fernbank district to include some areas currently served by Laurel Ridge and Briar Vista.
RCB
December 10th, 2012
10:53 am
The only reason Dr. Atkinson could be called successful is because she hasn’t been indicted yet. That’s the norm in Dekalb. I’m just resigned to the fact that my property taxes will go up with no results. Again.
bu2
December 10th, 2012
11:00 am
Regarding the borrowing to accerlerate projects:
They believe construction prices are low and it will produce some savings while allowing the projects to be in service, in some cases, two years earlier.
Almost all the interest will be covered by cancelling projects at schools they are closing. Their initial budget included $5.6 million for things like HVAC and roofs on schools they are planning on closing. That would be a waste of money.
Concernedmom30329
December 10th, 2012
11:05 am
bu2
You are right there are errors, but go look closely at the numbers for McClaren and Sagamore Hills (as compared to the first proposal from the week before) and you can see that the zeroing out of Laurel Ridge is apparently not a mistake. In the Nov 27th proposal, Sagamore has a projected enrollment of 520 and in the December proposal the projected enrollment is 672. McClendon has a projected enrollment of 491 in the Nov 27 plan and a projected enrollment of 854 (!) in the December plan. And Laurel Ridge is zeroed out. It is clear that someone made a decision to leave the less desirable parts of Laurel Ridge out of Fernbank.
Are you a Fernbank parent or former parent by any chance? Fernbank actually shrunk this year. Just by a few percent but it was in kindergarten and that can be significant.
Livsey absolutely needs to close. It is too small, but too build a new Fernbank at the expense of all the surrounding schools is just crazy.
Concernedmom30329
December 10th, 2012
11:07 am
Bu2
If we don’t need to do those projects, how about simply not doing those projects and spending the money, not on interest, but on classroom additions for the students in the Cross Keys cluster who sit in the most overcrowded schools in the district.
Do you also support the hiring of 5 more people for the construction department to oversee the acceleration?
bu2
December 10th, 2012
11:18 am
@Maureen
Midway being closed wasn’t shocking. It was pretty predictable if you followed redistricting closely last time. At the time they closed Peachcrest they talked about that being a logical site for a new 900 seat school. Midway and Knollwood are being closed and the students moved into the new school.
bu2
December 10th, 2012
11:21 am
@concerned30329
If we still have students in those schools, we can’t leave them with leaking roofs and inadequate HVAC systems. But roofs are for 20 years and HVAC for 5-10. Its a waste if you are going to close them in 2 years.
As for the hiring, they don’t seem to do things efficiently at DCSS.
bootney farnsworth
December 10th, 2012
11:25 am
except for the impact on the students and the community, its funny to watch APS and DCSS race to the bottom
concernedmom30329
December 10th, 2012
11:30 am
bu2
Do you see that Laurel Ridge is closing? Even if the system doesn’t say it.
Maureen Downey
December 10th, 2012
11:31 am
@bu2, That is true, but I think the Midway parent at the meeting was still quite surprised that the plan recommended closing the school. After the last attempt at redistricting and the board retreat from the lengthier list of closures, I think parents thought that they had won a reprieve.
Maureen
bu2
December 10th, 2012
11:36 am
Regarding Laurel Ridge:
There is nothing in the document about closing Laurel Ridge. I think you are inferring something from the sloppiness of the document that isn’t there. There are LOTS of obvious errors in the attendance. In many cases they have the attendance clearly switched between two adjacent schools (you see one school go from 500 to 900 and the next school go from 900 to 500). Maybe that is the case at Sagamore Hills. Maybe they expect growth there. The undertone seems to me like you don’t want “undesirables” from Laurel Ridge coming into your school.
What is getting zoned into Fernbank is part of the Medlock neighborhood which already was split between Fernbank and Medlock/Laurel Ridge. One side of the street was one school and the other side the other school. If you are going to move students to increase the number in the school, that would be the logical place.
Married with (School) Children
December 10th, 2012
11:40 am
Maureen,
Per public statements made by SACS, the latest SACS accreditation report was due *last* Monday, December 3. When is that report going to be shared with the public?
When a student does not turn in his/her homework on time, they get a zero. Why aren’t professional educators held to the same standard?
Concerned Lakeside Mom
December 10th, 2012
11:43 am
If this was really about overcrowding, then DCSD should shave kids off ALL areas of the grid – not target a select few. In our district, Sagamore Hills elem. is a prime example. It is no longer a “split feeder” school … all the students now attend Lakeside, and DCSD even expanded the reach of who would be included in the Sagamore zone. This is an example of why we have overcrowding. Why do a few of the high-achieving schools have to take on the burden of overcrowding for all by being sent to worse school districts? All feeder programs in this district need to stay intact, as they pledged they would do. This is not about overcrowding, this is about keeping state money, no matter how it affects the kids; and this is about “leveling the playing field” as in the letter above. Send the smart kids to the bad schools, raise the bad schools’ test scores, lower the good schools’ test scores, and all is right with the world because it is “balanced? It’s preposterous. How about being proud of the high-achieving, high-demand school areas – put some money in them and help them continue to grow and thrive instead of tearing those communities apart and negatively impacting these kids’ educations.
bu2
December 10th, 2012
11:45 am
@Maureen
I can understand why they thought that. But it was a stay of execution, not a pardon.
bu2
December 10th, 2012
11:51 am
The disturbing thing about this is that it was apparently due a year ago in order to qualify for state funding, but the district has gotten a reprieve. That is why it is being rushed now. It is being pushed through at the last minute without time for the board to thoroughly review, just like the budget was. Its also a really sloppy document. It doesn’t appear that it was reviewed by anyone. All of that is a bad reflection on Atkinson.
Concernedmom30329
December 10th, 2012
12:33 pm
bu2
Not a Sagamore mom. I am just pointing out the fact Laurel Ridge is being shuttered. Looking at the other zero outs, no where else does it impact attendance at other schools. (look at Vanderlyn for example)
Also, no other new school, even growing ones like Austin, gets to open with space. Why should Fernbank? If we don’t need a new 900 seat school there, perhaps Fernbank needs to be rebuilt in a different location?
bu2
December 10th, 2012
12:52 pm
Every school that is being closed is clearly identified both in the text and on the attendance spreadsheet. Again, I think you are just reading something into the document that isn’t intended. Laurel Ridge is not mentioned in the text except for the 69 students moving to Fernbank. There’s no closing of Laurel Ridge on the map nor are any students shown as moving to McClendon or Sagamore Hills. There is no comment in the section where they identify all the schools being closed or rebuilt. Its just sloppy work of which there is plenty of evidence in the document.
Anonymous
December 10th, 2012
1:11 pm
@Concernedmom30329,7:13 “When all the plans in the current proposal are completed, there will be about 1300 EMPTY high school seats in what DeKalb calls Region 4 which includes SWD, Lithonia, MLK and Miller Grove.”
Actually, there are MORE empty seats in Region 4. There is no mention of Arabia Mountain High School, which currently has about 300 empty seats. According to the projections in the 100+ page proposed redistricting plan, in 2016-2017 Arabia Mountain High School will only have 995 students.
I’m hoping that is a mistake.
Nevertheless, the empty seats at Arabia Mountain High School MUST be considered. Why we continue to build seats down there instead of expanding the supposedly fantastic programs at AMHS is beyond me.
Concernedmom30329
December 10th, 2012
1:34 pm
Totally forgot about Arabia Mt. However, they are leaving spaces there because most students already come from Region 4 and to fill it, means there will even be more empty spaces. What a bunch of malarchy. Arabia Mt. was to be a neighborhood school and we wouldn’t need these additions.
The children of DeKalb continue to lose, and lose big. Why can’t someone get this stuff right/
Dunwoody Mom
December 10th, 2012
1:38 pm
Vote to be delayed. Just came across on K-12 Alerts:
At tonight’s meeting, the DeKalb County Board of Education is expected to delay its first vote on a working draft of the 2016-17 Proposed School Organization until Jan. 7, 2013. A second vote on the final draft will take place on Jan. 23, 2013 as previously reported.
http://system10.k12alerts.com/newsbulletins/campaign.asp?5cn4z=JFDD
Pardon My Blog
December 10th, 2012
3:48 pm
Well, Dunwoody Mom may not need to be concerned because there is a proposal that the schools in the city of Dunwoody become their own district much like the City of Decatur. I would like to see the Lakeside district become a “Charter” district with a State run board and instead of taxpayer money being utilized to send kids to private schools they can choose a charter school. This Superintendent is in way over her head and is throwing out ideas without much thought.
Tuckergirl
December 10th, 2012
5:00 pm
As for delaying the vote on the proposal until January, I think it’s just a ploy to get angry parents off the board’s back. Remember Walker saying “Please don’t bless me out anymore about me betraying you.” Well, Gene, maybe that’s because you DID. This indicates that these “community meetings” to be held in January for input are a formality and they’ve made up their minds. As is often the case, they’ll just steamroll ahead and do what they want anyway.
My son is in kindergarten at Evansdale. I don’t want him to end up going to Tucker Middle instead of Henderson Middle. For one, Henderson Middle is closer. For another, I am not eager to send him to a school where the parents of a student drove her to the bus stop for the sole purpose of having her beat up another girl so they could film it. And where a teacher was arrested for statutory rape of a student. This does not instill confidence in me that he’s going to end up at a good school.
We chose the neighborhood we bought in back in 2005 for Evansdale and its current feeder system. I know that things do change and that sometimes, yes, you have to accept that. But this change (and many of the others proposed) makes no sense at all. And say what you want, I don’t know many parents who get excited about finding out that because of this change, their property values are going to drop like rocks when the economy is already stagnant. Nobody wants to say these kinds of things out loud but to ignore the reality is foolish.
my2cents
December 10th, 2012
5:59 pm
Hold on a minute – I read that the DC school system has something like 40% (or was it 60%?) of the students in charter schools – and now has to close and consolidate their ‘regular’ schools because of low enrollment. Maybe this Atkinson is trying to get ahead of the curve? In the end this could well be the most sensible thing they’ve done. (but don’t get me started on middle schoolers getting tablets…!)
Private Citizen
December 10th, 2012
6:28 pm
If I were King, the school board would have to have a consulting company sign off on any major changes they make. The public could then focus on evaluating the legitimacy and excellence of consulting company. This would lead to the most productive result.
signed I’m a genius and I know it, yes I am. Lucky me.
The Deal
December 11th, 2012
12:03 am
I appreciate the thoughtful and intelligent writing of the two Evansdale moms, but I can’t help but wonder why they think well thought out, reasoned, logical arguments are going to hold any weight with this band of criminals. The only thing that will get them to change the plan is a potential lawsuit, potential bad press (and screwing children educationally doesn’t make the news around here), or a valuable tit-for-tat. Does anyone at Evansdale know anyone in DeKalb county or Georgia state government? Any favors you can trade? Maybe you could meet up with Marshall before he gets on the board and ask him what the Fernbank community traded to get a new building? This whole plan is nothing but a way to funnel more money to administration and return favors conveniently under this pressing state deadline that will keep feedback to a minimum.
bu2
December 11th, 2012
8:23 am
Sometimes the simplest explanation is the best. This could be rushed due to incompetence, not some massive conspiracy.
As for Evansdale, its overcrowding at Lakeside that is pushing them out. Its unfortunate for them, but they are on the edge of the Lakeside/Henderson Mill zone and the most logical to move.
All of the proposed new schools replace schools deemed unacceptable, the lowest category.
Pride and Joy
December 11th, 2012
9:23 am
MM, I agree with you that English spelling is sometimes difficult to teach and to learn but there is simply no excuse for not knowing how to speak, write and spell it correctly.
My grandparents had only a fourth grade and an eighth grade education and they spoke, wrote and spelled English as well as I do today. They came to this country speaking only German. They were thrown into school knowing only how to speak German and they learned English because their teachers were educated and caring individuals.
To answer your question; we know how to pronounce and spell words by their context in the sentence.
I spoke to a broad with brown hair.
I went abroad and was fascinated by London.
We learn to speak and write English by using phonics, spelling and grammar rules and by the context in which a word appears.
Pride and Joy
December 11th, 2012
9:38 am
Concerned Lakeside Mom asks a good question “Why do a few of the high-achieving schools have to take on the burden of overcrowding for all by being sent to worse school districts?”
Here is an accurate and honest answer:
Because the high-performing students from the high-performing school will go to the lower performing school and score well on standardized tests, which will make the lower-performing school appear as if it is improving.
It’s an old shell game; move the kids around instead of actually improving the teaching in the school.
There is an OBVIOUS reason Fernbank is overcrowded; the test scores are higher than those of surrounding schools. Parents seek the best performing school and then find a house they can afford in that school zone. That is why every home in a relatively good school district posts the schools the home is zone for in the real estate ads. If the schools aren’t listed, you can guarantee the schools are dismal.
Here is the other truth; the reason Fernbank has high standardized teset scores is because many of the parents of those children are educated professionals who work at the CDC and at Emory. There are professors and scientists and all manner of other educated parents who send their children to Fernbank. Those parents teach grammar simply by speaking to their children in everyday conversation.
“Michael, does Emily want to come over and play cards with us?”
When the phone rings, mom picks it up and says “hello.”
The caller says “May I speak to Mrs. Alexander?”
Mrs. Alexander says “This is she.”
Educated parents model correct English grammar to their children simply by using it in everyday conversation.
Pride and Joy
December 11th, 2012
9:44 am
And of course, people who care about education realize their own mistakes:
“the school the home is zone” was meant to be “the school the home is zoned”
Pride and Joy
December 11th, 2012
9:48 am
my2cents — go ahead and get started with middle schoolers getting tablets. I am right behind you. They are a waste of money and they will turn the teacher’s lecture time into desktop support time.
It’s ludicrous, ridiculous and a blantant attempt by the super to try to score popularity points among the illiterate who will only use the tablets to try to download non-educational materials or worse, will try to sell them.
no mas
December 11th, 2012
10:04 am
P & J and my2cents – I’m right there behind you. My children attended a school where laptops were required (at parent expense), and they had a full-time 2-person staff devoted to solving problems and CONSTANTLY monitoring and strengthening the blocks of outside content. Even with two people full time, the students got around the blocks and screwed around.
Who in DCSS is capable of doing this for the entire middle (and high) school population?
Concernedmom30329
December 11th, 2012
10:32 am
bu2
You are clearly a Fernbank apologist. There is no reason that Fernbank, which has a newish wing, should be first out of the box for a new school that won’t even be full. At the same time this happens, every school on Buford Highway will be sitting at 125 percent or more capacity. Does this really make sense to you?
It is actually criminal.
DeKalb Inside Out
December 11th, 2012
10:55 am
* Fernbank just spent $10 million on that wing and now they are going to tear it down.
* Check out the attendance rezoning the administration put together. Fernbank got the choice cuts of the surrounding neighborhoods. (Drake, way to screw people over for your Fernbank friends)
* District #2 was redistricted to cut out McChesney’s base giving Orson the edge in the election. (FUMMO)
Orson and Team Fernbank are all up in DCSD in a very bad way.
Private Citizen
December 11th, 2012
11:21 am
I went abroad and was fascinated by London.
I went abroad to London and thought it was a nasty city with no sunlight or food, and with rude people, and now they have thousands of public surveillance cameras covering the city of London and they want to colonise our resources and they own the teacher certification testing used in Georgia. The former alternative was that entrenched mugwamp “ETS” from New Jersey. Big corporate supply lines – you just gotta love it. That’s what the British used to do, travel the world with their navy and take over places.
Private Citizen
December 11th, 2012
11:27 am
If you mess up Fernbank, it would be discourteous to the CDC families. The neighborhood is the location of the research battlestar gallactica for disease tracking for the whole United States, a complete anomaly for Georgia and Atlanta. the place is a giant facility and has many floors underground, too. The government scientists there might get enough pay for housing, but not for private schools. There is definitely and certainly more research scientists and .phds in a 5 mile radius of the CDC than anywhere in Georgia and maybe in the whole country. Most people in Georgia don’t even know what the CDC is. If you took a poll of people on the street in Georgia or even Atlanta, 99% of them would not know the acronym or what the place is.
Private Citizen
December 11th, 2012
11:32 am
* Fernbank just spent $10 million on that wing and now they are going to tear it down.
huh? that doesn’t sound good. how has our public planning gotten so terse and looney? Maybe the identity politics system is set to elevate the professional careerists and alienate the people who know how to do things.
Medlock Madness
December 11th, 2012
12:19 pm
Anyone that has ever driven to Fernbank ES or the science center knows what a logistical nightmare it is now. Go ahead and make your 900 student school in your awesome neighborhood, but dont make a peep when you cant get out to make your commute because the train of buses coming down your roads at least 2x a day. This BoE will not ever get any of it right, and Im not sure if the state putting their foot in will be any help either.
Prof
December 11th, 2012
12:41 pm
@ bu2, December 11th, 8:23 am: “Sometimes the simplest explanation is the best. This could be rushed due to incompetence, not some massive conspiracy.”
LOL!! Of course– the philosophical principle of Ockham’s Razor: the simplest of two theories is preferable. Reading the comments here about the report, I thought this too.
a reader
December 11th, 2012
12:45 pm
I can’t help wonder why people really want their kids at a school that is overcrowded, doesn’t have enough seats and doesn’t have enough books (yes, that’s Lakeside). It’s perceived as so much better, but really, if your family is pushing education your kid will do fine wherever. If you get involved maybe there won’t be such a difference between over and underachieving school. If you keep yourself segregated (and really, that is what you are doing when you won’t even give Tucker schools a chance) then that says an awful lot about you, and not so much about the schools themselves.
Lakeside is overcrowded. You are surrounded by Tucker feeder schools but somehow think you’re better than everyone else around you? Get over it. Put your time and effort into the Tucker schools and make them be all they can be. There are an awful lot of involved parents who would love to have you if you can drop your superior attitude. There are also less than wonderful parents everywhere (don’t think Lakeside is immune – it just hasn’t made the news recently).
There may be reasons that Dekalb isn’t thinking things through. There may be real problems out there. But work for all the kids, not just yours. Evansdale has managed to successfully have kids from apartments bussed PAST their school to other elementary schools further away just to keep their neighborhood pristine. Yes, we know all about you. Get over yourselves and help the whole area please. Show how much you can help everyone. Contribute to your whole community. Please?
bu2
December 11th, 2012
12:47 pm
@DIO and 30329
McChesney lost EVERY precinct except for around Sagamore Hills where he got them rezoned for Lakeside from Druid Hills (so who was trading favors for votes-who was contributing to Lakeside overcrowding?). You DSW2 people keep talking about conspiracies when the South Dekalb people put Druid Hills in Copelin-Woods district in their redistricting proposal and McChesney/Speaks/Jester split it and Cross Keys 3 ways in their plan. Druid Hills had no friends on the past school board.
And now Mosby is the area’s state representative instead of Ms. Abrams and Ms. Benfield representing the area. Not many friends in the state legislature either.
bu2
December 11th, 2012
12:50 pm
@Medlock
They definitely need to plan the driveways better! But Fernbank did have over 900 students in the early 90s before declining to around 430 about 10 years ago.
bu2
December 11th, 2012
12:55 pm
@Private citizen
Fernbank added a gym and two or three classrooms in 2005. DCSS has not shown a lot of good planning (witness the 600 seat addition at SW Dekalb HS that will leave them with 600 empty seats). But there are people who have this irrational hostility for Fernbank. Often it gets followed by some line about the worthless single parents in South Dekalb. They don’t know if the gym will be torn down or used in the new school. They tend to just make things up.
bu2
December 11th, 2012
1:23 pm
@Concerned30329
There is nothing to apologize for. There are just people spreading lies, half-truths, internet legends and absurd conspiracy theories, particularly those that post regularly on DSW2, that need to be challenged or others might believe that nonsense.
As I said, every new school in the 5 year plan is listed as inadequate in the facilities plan and most of those that are listed as inadequate are getting replaced. If the areas zoned to Cross Keys are at the bottom of the list, Jester and McChesney are to blame. They represent (or choose not to) that area. But none of those schools were rated unsatifactory.
bu2
December 11th, 2012
1:39 pm
You probably wouldn’t like the answer, but you ought to ask the question:
Why is Austin Elementary, built in 1975, and I believe the only school not rated unsatisfactory that is being replaced, being rebuilt when Dunwoody Elementary is below capacity (with some ridiculous gerrymanders to try to add more students)? If you want to look at “influence,” you should look at Nancy Jester. But, of course, that wouldn’t fit into your conspiracy theories that everyone is discriminating against North Dekalb.
Of the 22 schools rated unsatisfactory, 13 are being closed or rebuilt. With one exception, the remaining schools are under capacity, and with two exceptions were built in the 60s, 70s or 80s (the oldest-Avondale would be pretty tough to close when they lost the MS and HS last year). The new schools and the age of the facility(ies) they are replacing:
Fernbank (1958)
Peachcrest (2 schools-1958 and 1967)
Gresham Park (2 schools & part of a 3rd-1961, 1963, 1967)
Pleasantdale (1968)
Smoke Rise (1969)
Austin (1975)
Austin is the one that stands out.
So where is your outrage against Nancy Jester and Dunwoody?
Dunwoody Mom
December 11th, 2012
1:50 pm
@bu2, really, stop….you’re totally validating everything that has been stated about the Fernbank community….it’s all about Fernbank and Fernbank alone.
BOE members should not be involved in what facilities are directed for SPLOST monies. The school district should identify these without any interference from BOE members – right, Marshall?
Dunwoody Mom
December 11th, 2012
2:08 pm
btw, it was the school district, not Nancy Jester that specifically listed Austin for replacement.
concernedmom30329
December 11th, 2012
2:13 pm
Not a Jester fan. But Austin was built as an open elementary campus and many classrooms don’t have real doors (the library doesn’t have doors at all).
Austin had the worst score of any school in Dunwoody. But the right answer would have been to add an additional school in Dunwoody/Chamblee area. The powers that be, if I recall the discussion properly, refused to agree to simply saying a Dunwoody elementary school, rather insisting that it must be a replacement one.
Building capacities have been changed dramatically because of rapid class size increases. Dunwoody Elementary, Flat Shoals, and Princeton were all built to be 900 students. They now hold 1100 with no additions. This is because of the huge increase in class sizes since they opened not because they are really big enough to hold that many students.
The reality is that older schools probably needed to be renovated long ago, as Fulton did so well. Then most construction dollars could be used to really relieve overcrowding.
The reason that Buford Highway wasn’t addressed was that the bureacrats didn’t push it because no politician did. Will Marshall advocate for those schools?
Dunwoody Mom
December 11th, 2012
2:17 pm
@concernedmom is right. Dunwoody ES was built to hold 900 students. Then, magically, it was reconfigured to hold more.
Just as over the summer, the capacity of the majority of the middle schools in DCSD was increased by about 200 students based on some gobblygook about science labs. So, Peachtree Charter Middle school now has 5 available seats, but there are 4 portable classrooms on site. Makes sense to me.
DeKalb Inside Out
December 11th, 2012
2:44 pm
bu2
Where was Nancy Jester? Excellent question!
It may come as a surprise to you, but most of the BOE and the public don’t get the same access to The Drake and DCSD central planning as Team Fernbank does.
Austin Elementary – The Austin rebuild was shoved down Dunwoody’s throat. Nancy pleaded with Dan Drake and the rest of the board in the BOE meetings to take Austin off the list. Nobody in Dunwoody wants that school rebuilt. Austin, however, does need a renovation. There are NO doors on the classrooms and the walkway to the trailers are uncovered. The kids have to walk in the rain whenever they go to lunch or the restroom. Chestnut and Vanderlyn are just as bad. Does anybody at DCSD care … heck no.
Rigging the scores – I firmly believe The Drake rigged the classroom size score at Fernbank to make their score artificially lower. Fernbank and Ashford Park were built at the same time, yet have vastly different class size ratings … very suspicious.
CK Cluster – The Drake was constantly drilled by Dr Jester who inquired as to why no adjustments were made to the CK Cluster. The only explanation I have heard is to wait for CCHS to be completed. That whole situation is a lawsuit waiting to happen.
The Vote – Dr Jester voted against SPLOST. She stated publicly that it built schools where they weren’t needed and did almost nothing to address capacity issues.
That’s where my BOE rep was on the issues. Please let me know if my recollection of any of this is incorrect.
Pride and Joy
December 11th, 2012
5:23 pm
This comment is disturbing “Dr. A is making an attempt at getting funding that is desperately needed.”
There are PLENTY of funds. Millions and millions and mllions but they are wasted on the friends and family plan. Waste, fraud and abuse in Dekalb County schools.
We don’t need any more taxes nor funds. We need honest officials and we sure don’t need to give electronic, expensive tablets to students.
Pride and Joy
December 11th, 2012
5:37 pm
Reader doesn’t read much…reader says just go from Lakeside to Tucker. She/he doesn’t read the news much. Of course, I am talking about the story where the PARENTS of a middle school girl followed a bus home so their own daughter could beat up another middle school girl — and they filmed it.
WHY WOULD ANYONE WANT TO GO TO SCHOOL WITH THESE KIDS AND THE PARENTS WHO MADE THEM?
This is exactly what people want to get away from. There is no amount of parent involvement that can change another parent and their criminal behavior. I can teach my child to do the right thing; I cannot prevent idiot parents from following my child’s school bus so that their child can run out and beat the beJesus out of mine.
Why WASN’T THIS STORY A GET SCHOOLED BLOG?
When teachers complain about discipline in schools, this is the treacherous behavior they are talking about. This little girl learned the atrocious, criminal behavior from HER PARENTS! BOTH her mom and dad.
Both parents ought to be in jail and all their children should be in a safe foster care where we can hope they will learn that following another child home and beating her to a pulp is NOT acceptable.
See the Patch story.
http://canton-ga.patch.com/articles/news-nearby-parents-arrested-after-teenage-girls-fight-on-video-scantily-clad-santas
The Deal
December 11th, 2012
6:42 pm
For anyone who is horrified they might have to go to Tucker, have you looked at some of the other redistricting that affects Tucker? Tucker has a pretty broad reach from the area around Henderson and Henderson Mill roads to areas south of Lawrenceville and 78. The new lines appear to be shifting those who live south and west of Tucker into the Stone Mountain and focus the Tucker cluster on the neighborhoods off Midvale and Henderson Road. With these changes, the Tucker cluster schools might be more representative of the heart of Tucker and not be as scary to the Evansdale families. It is always a risk to live on the edge of a school zone, and that area has always stood out on any zoning map. There are families currently zoned for Tucker who live closer to Henderson Middle than current Evansdale families. If you are on the map as being rezoned to Tucker Middle or Tucker High, take a look at those that will be moving out of the zone, too, and see if that doesn’t affect your stance a little.
bu2
December 11th, 2012
6:46 pm
@DIO
More conspiracy theories? If Dunwoody doesn’t get the “access” then how would you know? I don’t know exactly what Jester did, but its obvious Austin doesn’t rank as high as the rest of those schools and the district keeps doing strange things with the Dunwoody ES attendance lines, which is apparently the school with the most apartment dwellers. And in the first draft it looked like Austin was drawn to pick up some of those near Perimeter, but it was changed in the 2nd draft.
@Dunwoody Mom
I guess I hit too close to home stating facts.
bu2
December 11th, 2012
7:02 pm
@DIO re: trailers
That is pretty much the case at a lot of schools. At Fernbank when there are thunderstorms expected, they move them into the gym as the trailers are as much as 100 yards away and down a hill from the nearest door (and the nearest bathroom). So learning pretty much stops on those days.
Dunwoody Mom
December 11th, 2012
7:10 pm
@bu2, you did the same as you accused others of doing with Fernbank…You misrepresented Nancy Jester’s actions and you clearly do not know what has gone on with regards to redistricting in Dunwoody. Might I suggest that you try not to make your point by criticizing that with which you clearly are uninformed.
Bill & Ed's Excellent Adventure
December 11th, 2012
7:22 pm
It’s funny how often what begins as constructive discussion on the real problems in DCSS on this blog so quickly turns into a bunch of finger pointing and crying about what Fernbank “gets” or doesn’t “get”.
Dunwoody Mom
December 11th, 2012
7:30 pm
This SPLOST IV plan just is further proof that I made the right decision in voting No. It’s a mess. There’s no direction.
Concernedmom30329
December 11th, 2012
7:34 pm
I think we can all agree that the SPLOST list stunk and that those of us who opposed it were right. The additions at all those S. DeKalb high schools aren’t needed, but those projects along with a few well placed new schools (yes,Fernbank as well as others) got enough people out to vote yes. It is a shame. SPLOST failing would have sent a strong message to the powers that be that DeKalb voters had had enough. Real change, had it failed, might had already happened.
Instead, several well connected, albeit perhaps not so well meaning, parents put their efforts into passing it “for the children” and look where we are.
When completed, by 2016 or so, there will be enough empty seats in Region 4 to house the population of another entire high school. That is why the 6-12th grade idea was floated. There is a need to close middle and/or high schools across S. DeKalb because of these additions.
But this board can’t make decisions that are good for the system, so the status quo, of what is good for my district is all that matters, continues.
The Deal
December 11th, 2012
8:49 pm
I’m with you, DM. The passing of SPLOST IV sadly has come home to roost. It’s 100% politics and has nothing to do with children or their academic improvement. It was the case before SPLOST IV, and it will continue. The only way to stop this madness would have been to vote it down, but no one would listen, They were in it “for the children”. Buildings just need to be safe and up to code. Some of our most beautiful buildings are some of our lowest performing schools, and some of our highest performing schools are in awful shape. I wonder if SPLOST IV would have passed if they had advertised what it would really pay for – interest on bonds and a handful of schools, not improvements needed systemwide.
John Hope
December 11th, 2012
8:53 pm
Interesting how no one has commented about Jester’s questions during the Board meeting about administering the SAT during a school day. She came off as being anti Title 1 students then voted No on the recommendation.
Dunwoody Mom
December 11th, 2012
9:23 pm
I watched the entire BOE meeting last night. How did Nancy come across as anti-Title 1? My opinon? Another good idea not thought through by DCSD. Are SAT Prep courses going to be offered? WIll the course be free? I know at DHS, my child was unable to secure a place in the SAT prep course. Why would students who have either no interest or opportunity to attend a post-secondary instutition being encouraged to take the SAT. Does DCSD realize that the ACT has now replaced the SAT as the most popular college entrace exam. Is the school district going to offer the ACT? Lots of questions and few answers.
bu2
December 11th, 2012
10:11 pm
@Bill
There is just this bizarre hostility towards other neighborhoods. South Dekalb complains about resources being taken from them and given to North Dekalb schools (when N. Dekalb has the worst facilities and the fewest $ per student). North Dekalb complains about Fernbank (when reality is that Lakeside and Dunwoody are the areas with influence that get what they want). I guess its not quite as bad as all the fighting in APS among the neighborhoods going to Sutton. That was downright hateful.
Aren’t Jester’s children in Austin? She moved into Dunwoody since she was elected.
They criticize rebuilding the oldest school on the list, but defend rebuilding the newest school on the list which was the only replacement school that was not listed as unsatisfactory and gets apartments zoned out in the 2nd draft. Their criticisms are just astoundingly hypocritical.
bu2
December 11th, 2012
10:34 pm
Dekalb really needs a 20 year plan, not just a 5 year plan. They need to figure out where the new schools are going to be. For example, maybe it makes more sense for a 900 seat school at Evansdale that Livesy gets sent to instead of miles away at Smoke Rise. But until you map out a long range plan, you are just filling random spots. They did seem to have a plan for Zone 5 elementary schools. But I don’t really see it for the other 4 zones. Dunwoody is just a total mess. Several of the existing schools are almost right next to each other and they have really bizarre lines.
And they don’t have a plan for the high schools and middle schools. Many of the middle schools are badly placed, perhaps because some, like Druid Hills MS are former high schools(DHMS is closer to Lakeside HS than Druid Hills HS and also far closer to Lakeside HS than that school’s MS). Cross Keys and Chamblee districts should have been redesigned. Instead they rebuilt Chamblee in the same spot and kept most of the county’s Hispanic population in the long stringy Cross Keys zone with the HS near the Fulton County line and the MS in Doraville near 285.
Many of the projects are badly needed, but there just isn’t a coherent long range design.
Concernedmom30329
December 12th, 2012
6:57 am
bu2
The real problem, which I think I referred to several posts ago, is that DeKalb has mangled SPLOST spending from the beginning. In Fulton, for example, where possible they renovated schools as they were also building new ones. If the new schools were getting TVS (I know dated technology) in every classroom, Fulton worked towards that for all students. DeKalb did virtually none of that until just a few years ago. The inequities created by SPLOST spending are horific, but this new SPLOST simply continues that. In part, this was because we had gotten so behind, so had Fulton, but it was also because we have had a Board of Ed for decades that was only out for their little district.
A 20 year plan won’t work. Look at S. DeKalb today vs 20 yrs ago. Perimeter Center today vs 20 years ago, etc. These areas are very different then they were.
However, what would be an improvement is for DeKalb leadership to acknowledge that some of our schools are in the wrong place and move them. Almost all N. and Central DeKalb middle schools were former high schools and were the default location.
You are right about Chamblee but we aren’t in the business of buying land. The newest elementary school in Dunwoody is in a dumb location. Anything not to buy land.
wts
December 12th, 2012
7:03 am
Jester’s children aren’t “in Austin”. It’s sad that you want to talk about her children.
Mrs. Jester asked that a school TBD be rebuilt in Dunwoody rather than list Austin. The district staff wouldn’t support this. She’s also pointed out that SPLOST is not dealing with the growth in student numbers in some areas and it is building in areas that don’t have the numbers to support it. She voted no as a board member to send SPLOST to the voters. She never liked the list and said so. I guess she was right. Why didn’t people pay attention to her at that time?
So you are criticizing her now, even though she voted against the whole crazy idea? You are not correct in where her children attend school and use this as a basis to criticize her?
If Dunwoody was so influential they’d have gotten much more. Ditto for the Brookhaven and Chamblee areas. They formed cities because they aren’t as influential as they should be.
Dunwoody Mom
December 12th, 2012
7:07 am
Dekalb complains about Fernbank (when reality is that Lakeside and Dunwoody are the areas with influence that get what they want).
So, so delusional. May I invite you to tour Chesnut, Kingsley, Vanderlyn and Austin? I can speak to Chesnut as my children attened ES at that school. It was falling apart 5 years ago when I was last in that building. Dunwoody HS received an oft-delayed and scaled down renovation which added ZERO capacity to a school that it and will continue to be overcrowded. Peachtree Middle School received portable classrooms in its 3rd year of existence even though county officals were told the new facility would not be large enough to handle to projected growth for that attendance zone.
I don’t have an opinion on the Fernbank district as I know very little about it. However, I know what I’ve read and heard directly from Marshall Orson himself. His views and actions have always centered around what is best for Fernbank and little thought about the other students of DCSD. We have enough of those people on the BOE now. That the Fernbank community put together a PAC to advocate for SPLOST IV tells me all I need to know. If you want to advocate for Fernbank and Marshall that’s fine, that’s your right. But, when you cast asperion on others in that support, that’s not right.
Dunwoody Mom
December 12th, 2012
7:14 am
However, I will agree with about the Chamblee High facility. The district should have taken its time to find a proper location and not try and force a large school in a small area. Again, with DCSD, no plan. Just build it and figure everything else later.
Concernedmom30329
December 12th, 2012
7:20 am
Actually we do have a 20 year plan, the 20/20 vision. Just adopted less than 2 years ago, it is already out of date. (Or more likely, it was never very good to begin with.)
Pardon My Blog
December 12th, 2012
7:40 am
With regards to overcrowding at Lakeside, we were over capacity last year yet the district allowed an additional 100 students in this year without enough teachers to start the year. There should be no transfers allowed in (at all) unless there are plenty of empty seats NOT filled by students from the area. Additionally, efforts should be made to keep them in schools in their home district or as close as possible so they are not sitting on a MARTA bus for an hour and a half one way.
bu2
December 13th, 2012
5:25 pm
@30329
I thought that was a 2020 AD plan, not 20 years. But does it have a facility plan?
The point about 20 years is that the district has changed its policies and is trying to replace small 450-500 seat schools with 900 seat schools. If you are replacing with similar size schools, extended future planning is not as important. But when you are changing the size, you need to figure out which ones get replaced and you aren’t going to replace that many in 5, 10 or even 15 years. They are mostly replacing at 45-50 years or more.
Few of our schools are less than 25 years old, so that is another reason for extended planning. We need to figure out the sequence rather than having 30% of our schools in really bad shape and all needing replacement or massive renovation at the same time. And of course, it needs to be updated every few years as things do change.