DeKalb County School District officials have pulled together a list of projects they hope will be completed through a half-penny tax extension approved by voters in May.
The list includes $85 million for a new Cross Keys High School and $30 million for a new John Lewis Elementary School.
District officials did not provide a list of specific projects for voters when they asked for the tax extension, which 71 percent of voters approved. DeKalb Superintendent Steve Green said in the spring that a list of projects would not accompany E-SPLOST language because he wanted community involvement to help develop a final list.
The $531 million plan presented to the school board during its meeting Monday also includes $25 million for new buses, $50 million for management support and $15 million for artificial turf for several high school fields. Money also is earmarked for new musical instruments ($10 million), upgrading building accessibility ($3.4 million) and replacing kitchen equipment ($1.2 million).
The early list of projects and proposals came from previous community meetings involving parents and others. Community members then helped prioritize projects in additional public meetings and through online surveys. The draft E-SPLOST project list was presented at public hearings across the district before the school board presentation.
Green spent the majority of his first year dealing with overcrowding. He inherited a district with students pouring out of temporary classrooms, mostly trailers set up in parking lots or on playgrounds. A plan was approved earlier this year to shuffle students to various schools to alleviate some of the crowding issues in the Cross Keys cluster of schools, six schools populated mostly with minority students whose primary language is anything but English. It consists of Woodward, Montclair, Dresden and Cary Reynolds elementary schools, Sequoyah Middle and Cross Keys High. The schools have a capacity for 5,700 students, but more than 7,500 were enrolled last year.
A suggestion that was immediately rejected was relocating popular Chamblee middle and high school magnet programs to use those vacated seats for projected growth in North DeKalb County.
The E-SPLOST plan looks through 2022, hoping renovations and new school buildings would accommodate projected population increases.
The DeKalb school board is expected to approve the E-SPLOST plan during its December meeting. A bond resolution would be complete by February, to be followed by a program schedule in March, which would include project start and end dates.
Board member James McMahan worried whether changes could be made after the board vote. Fellow board member Marshall Orson said any projects approved through the board vote could be altered, reminding McMahan that voters did not affirm many specifics when they approved the tax in May.
The AJC has created the The Ultimate Atlanta School Guide that lets you look at and compare critical data for every school in Georgia. You can find it at http://schools.myajc.com/#/schools.
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