Decatur Schools eyeing parcel outside city to store buses
Decatur’s school board has approved moving forward to purchase land for storing the district’s 27 buses. The vote was made after a recent executive session.
Executive Director of Operations Noel Maloof wouldn’t divulge the precise location since the purchase hasn’t closed. But he said it’s on North Decatur Road, just northeast of city limits and slightly less than two acres. He expects to close in two months.
The buses are currently parked on Talley Street in southeast Decatur, future site for a new 3-5 elementary school. Initially, the plan was to keep the buses there even after the school was built.
“A lot of this is due to community feedback,” Maloof said. “We heard from the community that they wanted to relieve surface parking and create more play space. This will give the school a bigger footprint with more green space.”
Maloof added that City Schools Decatur is on target to begin on site demolition late this winter or early spring, prior to breaking ground for the new school. The district is on an extremely tight schedule, needing to open the building by July 2019.
CSD previously partnered with DeKalb County for bus use, but for the last six years has run its own fleet, which has nearly doubled over that duration.
