With voters approving a $75 million general obligation bond to finance various construction projects, City Schools Decatur Superintendent David Dude wants a second opinion on enrollment projections.
For years CSD has used Thomas Sayre of Atlanta’s Sizemore Group for projections and statistical analysis. Sayre’s recent figures show that even if all construction phases are completed over the next five years, enrollment in most grades will still exceed capacity.
Sayre is also calling for a 2020-21 total enrollment of 6,204 compared with the current enrollment of slightly over 4,600.
Enrollment projections are just as much art as science,” Dude said. “We are borrowing $75 million so we want the most accurate projections possible. Right now we are walking the line between over building and under building.”
Dude hopes to have the second-opinion projections completed by the end of the school year.
“In the end there has to be a maximum number of students this city can hold,” he said. “That’s why we need another set of projections, so we have additional confidence in the numbers.”
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