DeKalb schools Student Assignment Plan will only work by rebuilding trust
Editor’s note: This guest opinion column was adapted from a letter the author sent to the DeKalb School District board and administrative leadership and published with her permission.
The conversation around the Student Assignment Project in DeKalb County is not just about boundaries, buildings or enrollment projections. It is about trust.
And right now, trust is in short supply.
The DeKalb County School District has endured repeated leadership disruptions over the past decade.
Most recently, former Superintendent Devon Horton resigned amid a federal indictment tied to actions predating his time in DeKalb. Regardless of when the conduct occurred, the impact here has been profound: more instability, more uncertainty and more erosion of public confidence.
Against that backdrop, the district is asking families to engage in one of the most consequential planning efforts in recent history: the Student Assignment Project.
Transparency is essential to building collaboratively
According to the district’s SAP materials, the initiative is intended to “reimagine” programs, boundaries and buildings using comprehensive data analysis and community feedback.
A 150-member advisory committee and phased engagement process are presented as evidence of inclusivity when, in reality, only a fraction of this committee consistently shows up.
But process alone does not create legitimacy. Trust does.
Many parents and educators have voiced concerns that the modeling assumptions, raw datasets and evaluation criteria behind SAP scenarios are not easily accessible or independently verifiable.
If the district wants meaningful engagement rather than performative feedback, it must release the underlying data, methodologies and assumptions in full transparency. Community members, including analysts, planners and researchers, should be able to test and validate the same information used to shape district recommendations.
Without that openness, the perception persists that decisions are being guided from the top down rather than built collaboratively from the ground up.
Compounding this skepticism are broader concerns about central office spending.
At a time when classrooms face staffing constraints and transportation reliability remains inconsistent, many families question executive-level compensation structures and the layering of administrative roles.
Leadership brought into the district under the previous superintendent, including individuals now overseeing major initiatives like SAP, must be evaluated not through titles but through measurable outcomes, transparency and demonstrated community confidence.
While the community appreciates the school board’s recent approval of an audit of the central office, can we get assurances that the audit will be made public? That beneficial action will be taken from the audit?
Transportation offers a clear example of where priorities matter. Reliable buses are not an operational side issue; they are foundational to educational access.
SAP must be executed as a unifying strategy
If DeKalb wants to stabilize daily school operations, it should start by competitively compensating bus drivers at levels comparable to neighboring systems such as Fulton County Schools and other metro Atlanta districts. Families cannot experience equity if they cannot reliably get to school.
And then there is the issue few want to say aloud but many feel deeply: the persistent perception of a north-versus-south divide within the county.
Whether rooted in data or in decades of narrative, that perception shapes how every major decision is interpreted.
SAP must be framed and executed, not as a redistribution exercise that fuels geographic tension, but as a unifying strategy to ensure every cluster, in every region, has access to strong programs and sustainable facilities.
DeKalb does not suffer from a lack of plans. It suffers from a deficit of confidence.
Before redrawing lines on maps, the district must redraw the relationship between leadership and community. That means radical transparency. It means fiscal accountability at the central office.
It means competitive pay for front-line workers who keep schools functioning. And it means explicitly committing to bridge divides rather than amplify them.
If the district rebuilds trust first, SAP can become a shared blueprint for the future. If it does not, even the most technically sound proposal will struggle to gain public legitimacy.
The choice before us is not just about assignment patterns. It is about whether DeKalb will lead with credibility.
Margaret Boylan is a preschool teacher, alumni of Druid Hills High School and a mother of three living in DeKalb County, Georgia.
