The DeKalb school board Monday approved a $475 million construction plan to replace and renovate schools, and to purchase new technology and buses. Now, it's up to voters to approve a special five-year penny sales tax program to pay for it.
In November, residents in Atlanta, Decatur and Fulton counties are expected to vote on the sales tax program, which by law sunsets in March. Because of overlapping boundaries, the districts must hold the sales tax referendum at the same time.
DeKalb's long-term goal is to phase out smaller neighborhood schools in favor of 900-student elementary, 1,200-student middle and 1,600-student high schools. The plan approved Monday would bring the district closer to doing that, said Daniel Drake, director of planning and forecasting for the district.
"It's more of an efficiency on the administrative costs for these schools, throughout the county," he said.
Highlights of the plan include the construction of seven elementary schools for$144 million, an arts school at Avondale Middle and a $22.4 million renovation and addition at Redan High. The plans come after the board voted in March to close eight schools in a massive redistricting that takes effect this fall. School officials said some schools are closing so that larger schools can be built in their place.
Two private firms were hired by DeKalb to survey schools and consider the building conditions and technology needs. The scores of those surveys were meshed together and used to determine which schools would be first in line for improvements.
Some parents at the meeting asked the board to consider schools in their area for upgrades. Speaker Connie Boone asked the board why clean schools were closed during the rezoning and students were moved to schools in disrepair, such as Meadowview Elementary.
“Last month, I got an opportunity to go to Meadowview’s open house… You all decided to keep the oldest and the nastiest school building in the McNair cluster open,” she said. “That school needs to be gutted, renovated or condemned.”
Collectively, the sales tax programs are expected to bring in about $1.5 billion. Other districts are in various stages of developing construction plans before the fall vote.
Dunwoody-area representative Nancy Jester was the only board member who voted against the plan, saying she didn’t have enough time to review the projects and she had questions about the influence of unspecified "outside" groups..
“There are very focused interest groups who have advocated for their projects, and we are benefiting groups that easily organize during the summer,” she said. “I can’t in good conscious vote for this plan.”
Monday evening, board members also OKed a $1.23 billion consolidated budget that includes furlough days for school employees. District officials originally canceled the unpaid workdays, but then reversed the decision last week because of an unexpected $15 million budget shortfall stemming from property tax collections.
Board members discussed whether to raise taxes, but the idea didn't gain traction.
About the Author
