DeKalb County school board officials have met on several occasions over the past few weeks, often in small groups, to do their homework on a tax district to finance a project developers and local governments want.
The board so far is standing firm in a majority decision not to participate, with many saying any tax dollars generated should go to funding education, their main goal.
“We want to make sure we make a rational decision,” school board Chairman Melvin Johnson said. “We did send a list of questions” to the developer. “We’re awaiting response so we can make a final decision.”
In a letter to Atlanta-based Integral Group CEO Egbert Perry, whose firm is behind the development, school officials seek answers on funding the project without a tax district, the cost schedule for infrastructure needed and whether private funding had been secured for the project.
Perry has said his firm would decide by June whether to continue with its ambitious vision of a massive development of houses and businesses or scrap it. The project, known as Assembly, could bring thousands of jobs, he said, and boost development in DeKalb.
The school board would control 56 percent of the expected funding. Johnson and Superintendent Steve Green have met with leaders from Integral and others interested in getting the school district’s support. Perry said in a meeting with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution recently that district leaders need to better understand their role in local development.
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