The DeKalb County Board of Education approved the district’s latest list of projects to be paid for with the Education-Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax Monday, though a group of parents sought a delay, citing transparency issues.
Voters approved a half-penny sales-tax extension in May, expected to generate $531 million district officials hope to use to avoid further overcrowding, renovating and constructing new buildings. A list of projects typically is listed with the resolution, but Superintendent Steve Green said officials delayed the list to allow for community input.
Parents complained during public comments that a proposed new high school at the old Briarcliff High School, which would house more than 2,000 students, site would cause considerable traffic, and that the student population size went concerns over the potential quality of education because of the size. They also worried district officials weren’t heeding concerns of parents who wanted a Doraville cluster of schools.
“What it’s really about is we just want is a chance to collaborate,” said Hilary Phillips, whose children attend DeKalb County schools.
Andrew Flake, whose children attend DeKalb County School District schools, wrote last week that the plan went against the wants of many in the county, including a call for a proposed Doraville cluster of schools as well as issues with proposed schools well above "ideal" capacities.
Amy Holmes-Chavez, whose children attend Chamblee High School and Chamblee Middle School, said she began having conversations with other parents early in the process. She said many conclusions were reached in those conversations that they sent forward to the district as decisions were being made.
“There was more opportunity for input than I’ve seen in any process than in the last 20 years that I’ve lived in the county,” she said.
The project list for the half-penny sales-tax extension includes $85 million for a new Cross Keys High School and $30 million for a new John Lewis Elementary School.
The $531 million plan presented to the school board also includes $25 million for new buses and $50 million for management support. 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.
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.
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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