With the August opening of Talley Street Upper Elementary, City Schools of Decatur has completed all building projects financed by the $75 million general obligation bond passed by voters in Nov. 2015. Besides Talley, that bond financed the doubling of classroom space at Renfroe Middle School and Decatur High Schools.
With a new round of facilities planning scheduled to begin this fall, it doesn’t appear any projects of similar size or ambition are on the horizon.
In a recent interview with the AJC Superintendent David Dude said he anticipates only one “large project—building something on the property [next to CSD’s central office].”
That would almost certainly be a new Early Childhood Learning Center on the three West Trinity Place acres CSD purchased for $4.2 million in 2017. Outside of that, Dude added, there “would probably be some additions at existing schools depending on need.”
CSD’s K-12 enrollment appears to finally be slowing. Shortly before Dude became superintendent in Nov 2015, projections were showing that enrollment would swell to 6500 by 2020. But as of this August 6 enrollment is 5693, an increase of only 176 students over this time last year. For the six years prior to this one CSD added between 250 and 406 students per year.
“Our current projections show we will plateau at around 6,000 students,” Dude said. “I think that absent annexation you can’t continue at the rate of growth that we’ve been having when [the city] doesn’t have any [additional] buildable space. It’s only natural that you’d reach a carrying capacity for the city limits.”
It anticipated that once starting, facilities planning could take several months.
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