City Schools Decatur enrollment has grown anywhere from 8 to 12 percent every year since 2009, and is about at nine percent this year. Tom Sayre, longtime statistical and demographics consultant for CSD, is still a couple weeks away from completing projections for the 2016-17 school year, but he doesn’t see the growth diminishing anytime soon.
Each of Decatur’s first five grade levels, kindergarten through fourth, has over 400 students, whiles grades five through 12 are below 400 each, and the 11th and 12th are under 300 each. The five lowest grades have 663 more students than the five highest.
“What this means,” Sayre said, “even if nobody else moves into Decatur, the schools are going to continue growing unless you throw people out.”
From a long-range perspective, the Atlanta Regional Commission’s recently-released Plan 2040 shows metro Atlanta growing by about 2.5 million in the next 25 years, with most of that growth likely occurring in existing neighborhoods and cities like Decatur.
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