Decatur Schools Superintendent Phyllis Edwards would definitely like meeting architect Jack Honderd, one of three principal partners in East Decatur Station which owns 35 acres from New Street to Sams Street. Honderd said last week that including an elementary school in any future development on the site “fits our vision as part of a complete community.”

Meantime Edwards has been frustrated in recent years trying to secure land for new schools.

“We have a commercial real estate person who’s scouting around,” she said. “I don’t know if they’ve talked to [Honderd] or not. But you can’t keep developing and developing without setting land aside for a school.”

In the next few weeks Decatur’s school board will formally ask commissioners to put a General Obligation Bond on the November ballot. Edwards anticipates $10 million from that bond will go towards property and another $15 to build a school.

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Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D. (center) is flanked by GOP whip Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo. (left) and Finance Committee Chairman Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, as Thune speak to reporters at the Capitol in Washington on Tuesday, July 1, 2025. Earlier Tuesday, the Senate passed the budget reconciliation package of President Donald Trump's signature bill of big tax breaks and spending cuts. (J. Scott Applewhite/AP)

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