Commenters on the AJC Get Schooled blog debated the proposed annexation of Druid Hills into the city of Atlanta, which could enable APS to assume control of the DeKalb County schools within the annexed area, including Druid Hills High School. But not all students now attending the high school live in the proposed annexation area, meaning the high school community would be divided. Here is a sampling of reader views:
BU: The teachers at Druid Hills High are employees of DeKalb schools. APS will hire who they wish to hire. And many teachers, for benefits reasons, may feel they need to stay in DeKalb. So the staff of the schools will be torn apart. Further, the 20 percent of Druid Hills High School moving to APS will be something like 70 percent white and only 10 percent black. As race conscious as APS is, I can't imagine it allowing a high school to be formed with those ratios. It might well be the whole population gets shipped to Maynard Jackson High School, which APS is working hard to improve.
James: I think each of the new cities or groups of cities created in Fulton and DeKalb should be given the right to create their own school districts. When consolidation into county school districts happened in the 1950s, cities were given the choice of creating or keeping their own independent districts. Marietta, Buford and others are examples. It's only fair and logical that new cities have the same option.
Oakland: Why not make Druid Hills Middle School the new Druid Hills High School and use the current building, now being used as the temporary home for Fernbank Elementary, as the new middle school? We're just talking about buildings. Let Druid Hills and Emory University merge into Atlanta.
ThreePer: Public schools are for the public. They cannot be tailored to fit this or that parent's idea of the perfect education. That is what private schools are for, and there is no shortage of them in Atlanta. Druid Hills High School and the other schools do not belong to a small group of narrow-thinking people, and when I say schools, I am all-inclusive — teachers, students, buildings. This whole annexation bid is pure anarchy.
Jm: All of this is in the hands of the Legislature now. … It's up to them to deny the request, call for a moratorium, or put it in the hands of the voters in the area next fall. Scary, because I feel the powerful, vocal minority in favor of annexation is doing everything it can to cram this thing through before most residents of the area know what hit them.
TheDeal: This isn't about buildings. This is about empowerment for people who want to seek better for their children, neighborhoods and property values. They tried to do it the right way, the least disruptive way, with the charter cluster petition. When the DeKalb County School District shut them down, I don't understand why they weren't supposed to be able to seek other alternatives. If others in the Druid Hills High School zone want to be mad at someone, be mad at Michael Thurmond. He's the one who stopped the entire thing.
