Consultant Thomas Sayre’s statistical projections before Decatur’s school board Wednesday indicate at least a new K-3 school and 4/5 academy will need building by 2020.

Sayre projects that by 2020 City Schools’ enrollment could swell to 8,145 — including students from proposed annexation properties — with the system currently having capacity for 3,859.

Annexation to Decatur’s north could potentially provide land for new schools.

“We don’t have land [within current city limits] to accommodate growth unless the city acquires [property surrounding existing schools] by eminent domain,” Superintendent Phyllis Edwards pointed out.

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Fulton DA Fani Willis (center) with Nathan J. Wade (right), the special prosecutor she hired to manage the Trump case and had a romantic relationship with, at a news conference announcing charges against President-elect Donald Trump and others in Atlanta, Aug. 14, 2023. Georgia’s Supreme Court on Tuesday, Sept. 16, 2025, upheld an appeals court's decision to disqualify Willis from the election interference case against Trump and his allies. (Kenny Holston/New York Times)

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