Any truth to the rumor of moving the magnet program from Chamblee Middle and Chamblee High?
Steering Committee Meetings
In June, the Secondary School Facility Planning and Feasibility Study did its final round of public input sessions with a series of five Regional Steering Committee meetings. These committees consisted of two representatives from each of the forty middle and high schools included in the study.
Contact your school or governance council to find out who from your school attended and how the meetings went.
These meetings gave the regional steering committee members an opportunity to discuss possible options to address the middle and high school capacity concerns. Feedback from these meetings will be used to generate a single option that will be presented at the final public input meeting on August 23 & August 25, 2016.
Steering Committee Meeting Presentation
The steering committees discussed the purpose of the Secondary School Facility Planning & Feasibility Study along with the problems they are trying to solve. An update was given on where they are in the process and the E-SPLOST V funds available.
They studied and discussed the pros and cons of the following four potential options to address current and pending capacity needs. From these four options, over the next few weeks, the steering committee members will put together and recommend one (unchanged or modified) option to take to the public at the 3rd and final round of public input on Aug 23 and Aug 25 .
Options Developed To Address Capacity Needs
| Option 1 |
New Cluster Approach • Builds new high school & new middle school • Adds classroom additions at Lakeside HS & Clarkston HS • Adjusts attendance zones as needed |
| Option 2-A |
Expanding Existing Capacity • No new schools • Adds classroom additions to numerous overcrowded schools • Adjusts attendance zones as needed |
| Option 2-B |
Expanding Existing Capacity & Relocate Chamblee Magnet Program • No new schools • Adds classroom additions to numerous ocercrowded schools • Relocates Chamblee MS/HS Magnet Programs to Southwest DeKalb cluster • Adjusts attendance zones as needed |
| Option 3 |
Utilize Existing Capacity • Builds new middle school • Converts Henderson MS to high school • Converts Towers HS to middle school • Adds classroom addition to Clarkston HS • Re-opens Avondale MS • Extensive attendance zone changes |
Round 3 Public Input Meetings:
- Tues, Aug 23 @ 6:30pm in the auditorium at Clarkston HS
- Thurs, Aug 25 @ 6:30pm in the gymnasium at Cross Keys HS
Secondary School Facility Planning and Feasibility Study
The study will identify the challenges and opportunities facing each middle school and high school, determine options to address the needs identified, and prepare regional master plans to implement the options. The regional master plans will be presented to the Board of Education for approval as input for the development of the 2017-2022 E-SPLOST program.
The study will review feeder patterns, re-clustering attendance areas, additions to schools and new/replacement schools.
Input From Stakeholder Meetings & Online Survey
• Build middle and high school in Region 1 – “Doraville cluster”
• Add capacity to Dunwoody HS and Peachtree MS
• Rezone Clarkston HS to relieve overcrowding, or create 9th Grade Center, and improve transportation for those closer to Redan HS
• Utilize former Briarcliff site. High School? 9th Grade Center? Middle School?
Magnet program?
• Relocate magnet/curricular programs from Regions 1 & 2 to 4 & 5
• Use Druid Hills MS and Avondale MS/HS as cluster to relieve Lakeside/Clarkston
• Merge DSA & DESA into one facility, and/or relocate to Region 4 or 5
• Create STEM middle & high for Stone Mountain area?
• Standardize grade levels for choice programs to provide clear K-12 path.
Emerging Facility Considerations From Stakeholder Feedback
Pros & Cons
Planning and Feasibility Study Options
July 25, 2016 – Committees consisting of steering committee members and two representatives from each of the forty middle and high schools studied and discussed these pros and cons of the four potential options to address current and pending capacity needs.
Cost Estimates
Planning and Feasibility Study Options
July 20, 2016 – Based on 2022 enrollment projections, the Steering Committee discussed these Cost Estimates for the four potential options to address current and pending capacity needs.
DeKalb Secondary School Facility Planning and Feasibility Study
July 18, 2016 – The study will identify the challenges and opportunities facing each middle school and high school, determine options to address the needs identified, and prepare regional master plans to implement the options. Here are the problems, the funds and the options.
Chamblee Magnet Program – Is it moving?
July 13, 2016 – Any truth to the rumor of moving the magnet program from Chamblee Middle and Chamblee High? Steering committees discussed the pros and cons of the following four potential options to address current and pending capacity needs.
“Extremism in defense of liberty is no vice. Moderation in pursuit of justice is no virtue.”
Here is hoping the school district takes a wholistic approach to the overcrowding issue and not the one-off, “Band-Aid” type situations we’ve seen in the past. Also, it would be prudent, in my opinion, for any decision(s) that some type of “back-up” plan is created if the population trends do not hold up. This is one reason I am leery about building multiple new school buildings.
Relocate Chamblee magnet program to Southwest Dekalb??!! I know the county hates the magnet program, but that’s beyond ridiculous. Why would you move it so far away from where the students live?
Doesn’t SW DeKalb still have a High achiever Magnet program in place? Would they just add these kids and teachers to that? My kids went to the Brown’s Mill ES and Miller Grove MS magnets and they fed into SW DeKalb at that time. We moved before we got to that program but most of their classmates did attend at that time.
Wow. The thought of taking all those teachers from the current program and shifting them across the county is mind boggling. Move the MS program as well? And didn’t they discontinue the magnet busing?
Interesting.
Wasn’t SPLOST IV supposed to fix all of the athletic facilities? What happened to that promise?
Why focus only on the magnet program at Chamblee MS/HS? Kittredge magnet is using up a very nice, large elementary school building in this over-crowded area. DSA is using up an ENTIRE high school – half of which is now just storing a bunch of junk! Plus – there is a very nice stadium at that school as well! Revive Avondale HS and make DSA just be a program within the school – or in some other high school. There is room for at least 1,000 more students in that building.
If you convert Druid Hills MS back into a high school (re-rename it Shamrock? lol) – where are you going to place all of those middle school students?
It’s a brilliant idea to build on the former Briarcliff site. Shoulda been done long ago. There’s space for an entire cluster complex there — plus a stadium! Use it!
And Kittredge fills that building with students, teachers, & staff. Your comment suggests it’s not being well-utilized.
@ Mel — No not at all – it’s just that that particular attendance zone is severely over-crowded and looking for relief. Seems to me that they are lending a building to a special program that brings in students from other attendance zones – when perhaps the local students living in that area really could use that building.
Really, it’s interesting to witness people say, ‘oh yes, those poor Hispanic children in the Cross Keys district are so over-crowded. They shouldn’t have to squeeze into 20+ trailers.’ and then turn around and say, ‘oh, but don’t you dare take away our special magnet program building that’s in your neighborhood to relieve your pain. I’m all for fixing what’s wrong – as long as I still get my something special… ‘
Truth be told … there are definitely TWO DeKalb school districts. Maybe three. 1-Magnets. 2-Decent traditional schools. 3-The rest. And the powers that be need to keep Kittredge and DSA in place, as these specially chosen children are the only ones who can bring in a respectable ranking in any way.
I sometimes wonder if DCSS comes up with some truly outrageous and stupid ideas to drum up support for other options that may be controversial on their own merits. The old, “Look at the right hand while I pick your pocket with the left.” I have to believe that tearing apart the Magnet programs at CHS/CMS, one of the few crown jewels in the whole DCSS, is a fake option that will get the public to support more costly options like building new schools and expanding others. Maybe I’m being too cynical, and DCSS is really considering this moronic option.
I do believe a Doraville HS makes sense. That could help overcrowding at CHS, Cross Keys and even Dunwoody. Land is always a challenge with building a new school, but it just so happens that there is small vacant parcel in Doraville that GM is trying to get rid of. I think they want a few things from DCSS so a deal might be made. I would also consider building a new shared stadium onsite for (DunHS/CHS/DorHS) and tear down the collapsing one at CHS.
I don’t know if the parcel is big enough, but if the stadium is moved from CHS, it might be possible to build a new facility to host either a new elementary school or Kittredge and revive Nancy Creek ES. I think the latter option would be best as NCES is in a location that would best help with overcrowding at Montgomery ES. Furthermore, with only having 4-6th grade, a multiple story option could be on the table which is not with younger kids. Plus having access to labs and resources at CHS next door could be a benefit to both student populations. HS kids in educations programs could walk next door to assist in the classroom as part of course work. KMS kids could use STEM labs, auditoriums,etc. at CHS.
Another vacant parcel is the old CMS/Shallowford ES site on Chamblee Dunwoody. I’m not sure how a MS ever fit there, but it could be put to use, either for a new facility or proceeds from its sale.
Of course I’m building all this new stuff like I’m playing Sims City. This stuff ain’t cheap, which comes the rub. DCSS already collects a lot of property taxes and now they are going want more. There are a lot of folks that aren’t going to want to pay even more that what they’re paying, especially since they have not been good stewards in the past. The accreditation/Board issues are still in the back of peoples mind. I think that having a logical, sensible plan that solves issues in North/Central/South DeKalb is essential.
The Magnet suggestion is the polar opposite. “Vote for MegaSPLOST so we can shut down one of the few programs that brings state and national recognition to our school system” Make no mistake, moving the CMS/CHS magnet programs is shutting it down, because only 15-20% of the teachers, staff and students will move with it. I venture a large number of the teachers will leave DCSS altogether. That’s not to imply that a magnet program at SWDHS won’t be as successful or greater, it just means it will be a new venture with new people. They will blaze their own new trail. You don’t relocate a program across the county. A relocation is moving a mile or two down the road, this is a shutdown and startup. To Stan and the rest of the board, let’s be honest about this. Option 2B should read: Shutdown Chamblee MS/HS Magnet Program. Create new HS/MS Magnet Program in Southwest DeKalb cluster.
Please do not relocate the Chamblee Magnet program. Many of the children in the program are from single parent homes. Relocating the program would cause significant additional burden on the parents of those children, which include me. I spent a lot of money to relocate and purchase a home closer to the school. I also have a chronic illness and still work full time, so I needed to live close enough to the school to be able to get my child there on time everyday.
The program is amazing and it is definitely worth the sacrifices we are making for our children to attend; however, if you keep moving it, we may not be able to keep out children in it.
I am fed up. All these “wasn’t that supposed to be covered by the last SPLOST” question absolutely infuriates me.
So, Nick, are you implying that if the magnet program was related from Chamblee HS that the school would not continue to be a “crown jewel”? I find that assertion offensive to the resident/charter students as well as the administration and staff of CHS.
Nick specifically said he is not implying that a new magnet program at SWDHS would not be as successful or greater. I agree with that and I also agree that many of the existing students, teachers and staff would not want to travel an extended distance as would be required by moving the programs as suggested. We all know how horrible Atlanta traffic can be. This is just not feasible for many families, particularly if they want their other kids in their home area schools to get to school on time or if the working parents want to make it to work on time.
A new program would also take time to achieve the same level of amazing performance that currently exists and I would hate for the county and the students to take steps backward, rather than forward.
Quite a few families have figured out how to make DeKalb School of the Arts work. However, I don’t see a lot of parents staying with the magnet program if it moves a great distance from their house. I’m not sure how the steering committee sees it.
The thought behind the move would be to kill two birds with one stone. They could alleviate some overcrowding in the North and fill some seats in the South. I think many families from the North would just return to their already overcrowded home school and exacerbate the overcrowding issues there.
Stan, the detailed information that goes with these changes needs to be out on the school website so everyone can see it. Your visual is both alarming and informative, but lacks the detail needed to make a good decision. Open and transparent means that detailed information should be easy to find on the school system website. This is billed as a secondary school issue, but any redistricting is going to involve elementary school attendance areas, too.
I agree with some of the other writers. Moving the high achievers magnet programs to extreme south Dekalb will likely end the program. I would not be willing to spend the two hour commuting time that would be needed to take a child to school and then pick up that child 6 hours later. That commute gets longer if you have to drive in heavy traffic. If you need to move this program, place it in central Dekalb in an area where it is easily accessible to everyone.
If we are looking at building our way out of these overcrowded schools, we won’t see any real relief for another decade. Building a new school in DeKalb is a painfully slow process. While Kittredge affects schools in Dunwoody, Oakcliff and Warren directly affect the overcrowding at Carey Reynolds. More than a few years ago, the school system looked at moving the Warren Tech program to a more central location. There was a lot of controversy. Today, this program is taking instructional space that is needed for children who live in the area. I think the school system should get out the maps and look to see if drawing elementary school attendance areas around these buildings would make any difference. That information needs to be made public.
Stan,
I guess I don’t see the logic in this at all. Doesn’t south Dekalb already have a magnet program (Wadsworth)? I just assumed the reason for 2 magnet programs was to prevent families from having to drive outrageous distances. Would you put these kids on buses for an hour or more? My son attends Kittredge, and we live in the Lakeside attendance zone. As a working parent (with a job fairly close to Lakeside), it can easily take me an 1 1/2 hour round trip to pick him up in late afternoon. I can’t even imagine the drive across the county and back. I also can’t imagine how working parents could make it to after school events. And the county expects teachers to either relocate or do that drive? And it’s more than just inconvenience. We are close enough in distance to Chamblee to feel like our son would still be attending school in our community.
I have to agree with the poster who suggested this would just kill the magnet program. He’s right. When you “relocate” a program, you don’t move it to the other side of the county. That’s how you destroy it.
I don’t think the magnet program should be the scapegoat for the county’s short-sightedness.
And what about the property on N Druid Hills (near Briarcliff) that has sat empty for years? How can we have both overcrowding and non-utilized building space in the same area?
I checked and SW DeKalb does still have a high-achievers magnet program, that was supposed to be the “same” as the program at Chamblee. However, instead of just a lottery application, they indicate that you can directly enroll in their program. So it would be a matter of consolidating the two magnet programs into one school on the south side. It would not “kill” the magnet program, but would remove attendance as an option for many students who live on the north side.
Arabia Mountain is referred to in several places as a “high-achiever” magnet, but their web site refers to it as a technology or engineering program. I was interested to read that the county would provide transportation there from several hubs. I thought that magnet transportation had been eliminated.
As for “crown jewel” – a beautiful new facility does not mean that the test scores are top-tier. Arabia Mountain is a crown jewel of a facility, but where do they rank in academics? DSA I believe outranks Chamblee academically, and they are housed in half of the old Avondale building.
If the DCSD is going to provide magnet programs, it only makes sense to distribute them geographically, or to put them in one central location. Avondale is pretty much the middle of the County.
Why move the magnet program? – Some people theorize that it will help alleviate overcrowding in the North and help fill empty seats in the South.
Moving the magnet program would kill it – Allow me to play devil’s advocate, people will say that the Kittredge High Achievers Magnet School flourished after moving it across the county back in 2008.
Mel, I don’t know what space you are talking about.
Perhaps move the current magnet more central and not down South and make it easily accessible to everyone. – At 5pm it takes me about 45 minutes to get from Dunwoody to Chamblee HS. I don’t think there is a location that is easily accessible to everyone.
Uh, Stan, Mel is talking about the old Briarcliff High School building that has been sitting empty and being vandalized for several years. We Briarcliff Alumni have been hopping up and down to get DCSD to maintain the property. I have video from the summer three years ago where a window AC unit was running and dripping water and someone was living in that classroom. The windows were broken out and there was easy access through broken sidelights on the doors. The power was on, as was the water. Conversations were held with Michael Thurmond about the cost to fix up the building, and if I remember correctly, it was about 90 million. Tim DeBardeleban has worked diligently on this for years.
Thank you, Amy. That is the location I’m talking about – across the street from Target.
Stan, I’d take a 45 minute commute over a 2 hour commute any day of the week.
And I don’t know where it was located in 2008 or how changing demographics/population might have affected this. If you want to reduce magnet program locations from 2 to 1, then make it centrally located. Don’t put it in the southern corner of the county and claim it serves everyone.
Ah, I thought you were talking about some empty property with nothing on it that I wasn’t aware of. There is some sort of political battle for dominance in that area between the Druid Hills and Briarcliff areas. I’ll see if McChesney can chime in and provide some insight.
A gentlemen wrote this on my facebook page … so for what it’s worth …
Is this the property you were referring to for the 2008 move? I know Kittredge was there for a while. The name Kittredge is still on several signs. But that wouldn’t be a move across the county. That location is less than a mile from I-85 on N Druid Hills.
How about replacing the old Briarcliff HS building with a state of the art facility. How does 90 million in repairs compare with new construction?
Agreed. A move to the Southwest DeKalb cluster would be much more significant. Remember, this is DeKalb we’re talking about. Don’t try and get logical … that approach rarely works.
I believe it was a whole lot cheaper to refurb than start over. I’m looking on one of the Briarcliff HS pages and I’m now seeing 23 mill to refurb and 29 to replace. Here’s a link to a document about it:
http://www.dekalbschoolsga.org/projects/operations/fca/former-briarcliff-hs.pdf
Stan you are right about Orson and MacMahan on their thoughts about the old Briarcliff High School. I suggested to Dr. Lewis that we should make Briarcliff a magnet because it is centrally located in DeKalb County. It is also on a main MARTA line. Of course he had other issues. The building is really our answer to helping relieve Cross Keys HS, LakesideHS and possibly Druid Hills HS.
There is a lot of misinformation out there about the building and the land. It is the second most valuable piece of property the school system owns. The most valuable is Cross Keys. I complained during my time on the BOE that the building was poorly maintained. I got the engineers report and it said the school was in pretty good shape for its age. I went through and highlighted the salient points for Dr. Lewis. He admitted to me that the school system had done poor maintenance. We also did a study in 2011 or 2012 about what it would take to make Briarcliff a fully functioning high school again. The report we got was that you could could get the school up and running again for $30 million. It would then have a useful life of 25 years. $30 million is about half the cost of building a high school today. I think that number would still hold today.
MacMahan and Orson need to polish up on the history. All of Sagamore Hills and some of the Druid Hills area were sent to Briarcliff. Lakeside was born out of Briarcliff because of overcrowding. Briarcliff was the premiere school of DeKalb County during its heyday. Lakeside could use the relief. The two school board members are thinking about reelection not children. As a matter of practicality. Druid Hills is the landlocked school that can’t park its faculty and students. Emory U. would pay a handsome sum for that property. It would be a windfall for the school system. It would also more than pay for a redo of Briarcliff. Briarcliff is larger and is built in the the manner you would build a new high school today. It has wide halls and banks of natural light. Most, if not all, of Briarcliff has also gone through asbestos abatement.
Don – that link I provided above is a report about the Briarcliff property dated May 20, 2016, so it would be the most recent. The only place I’ve seen it posted was on the BHS Coalition FB page.
Had a discussion last night with a gentleman who is active with the Cross Keys Cluster. His idea is to turn Cross keys into a middle school and reopen Briarcliff as a High school with it’s own cluster. Personally think making it into a Magnet High School would work also because it could serve a larger area of the county. As Don McChesny pointed out Briarcliff has a MARTA bus stop directly in front of school. What he did not say was that bus route runs directly from the MARTA Brookhaven Rail Station to the Decatur Rail Station. So one train ride and one transfer and most students can be to school from most anywhere in the county. Briarcliff also has easy access to the expressway system. The recent Facilities assessment condition report estimated to rehab and refurnish Briarcliff would be $29,000,000.00 which looks like alot of money until you compare it to the estimated $80,000,000.00 it will cost to build a new school. Also after reviewing the report I think that estimate to rehab Briarcliff is a little high. Think cost should be around $25,000,000.00. I base this statement on many things in report I question the need to do. One example it says to replace the gym floor. The gym floor has been covered with carpet for the last 25 years. Good chance all they will need to do is refinish it. I just wonder where else DCSD could use the extra $50,000,000.00.
Tim, you have made some good points. The gym floor will have to probably be replaced because very heavy equipment has been stored on it for years. The county took old A/C systems and equipment that was huge and heavy and stored it there on the gym floor.I was told when I was surveying it a few years ago that the water system and plumbing would have to be replaced as it is not fully functional now. It would also have to be rewired for the high use of electronics in a school today. One of the lines in the engineers report that I read in 2011 was that the electrical panel was old but still serviceable. It would be a wonderful thing to see that school serve the community again.
Stan, I agree with September’s comment that more information about the various options should be given to the public. I am specifically talking about cost and timing info. How much would each option cost? How long would it take before each option would relieve overcrowding?
Without this info no prudent decision cam be made.
And part of the reason for making this data public is to ensure that DCSD has really looked at the cost and timeline for each option.
OK. I’ll put together some more information in another update. I’ll try to get that out Monday morning.
Don, you might be right about gym floor. I base my statement on what I have seen being involved with several loft conversion in old warehouses downtown. Typically they had to replace the wood floors where water got to the floor. Compression strength of maple is high. You are correct about all new A/C. Electrical will also have to be redone. Think about it, when I went to school there you had an electrical plug in front of classroom and one in back of classroom. They need about 5 times as many now. Plumbing issues is what has caused the structural issues on the back lower hallway. They had main water pipe burst that DCSD left running for over a week. Just taking a wild guess but think that is cause of the settling issue. For three years now I have been keeping an eye on the signs and do not believe that it is active settling problem. The one part of Briarcliff I have never been in is the basement. Would love to be able to get in there and see what the problem really is and what it would take to fix. After spending most of my life being involved with remodeling industry I can tell you I have seen worst buildings rehabbed.
Amy and Tim. Thanks for all the updates and link to the latest survey. It pretty much says you could put the school back in service again for less than new construction. This is a direct answer for Lakeside and Cross Keys and some of the clusters issues.
Point is the school board, the planners and whatever company we are using to produce these feasibility studies haven’t even considered reopening Briarcliff HS as a high school. Above states they are thinking of a magnet school center or a 9th grade academy for Cross Keys. We, parents and taxpayers, play this game of Dcsd should….and they already know what their plan is.
Not saying it’s a conspiracy and Stan I appreciate the information. But time and time again this county school district has done only 2/3 of whatever the hell it wants. They ask opinion but proceed with what ever they want. Esplost plans from years ago, What has been completed? Iknow we built Chamblee a new school and Henderson is in construction but I want to see info on completion of 1-4! Did they do everything on those plans they asked money for? Time for supt Green, which we hear so little from, to update the taxpayers on where all these esplosts funds were used and what is still to be done, line by line.
Convert DHMS into a high school?? Hell NO!! I’m not sure about the other proposals, but changing DH Middle School to a high school is patently absurd. It would disrupt the lives of all those middle school kids, reshuffling them all over the place, as well as current high school students at other schools being shuffled drastically. DHMS is a good, smoothly functioning middle school — don’t mess that up. Use some of that new $500+ billion E-SPLOST we are paying in the next five years to build schools where needed, and to repair/upgrade existing schools to serve the proper number of students.
And don’t even get me started on how badly changing DHMS would affect the surrounding small neighborhoods to add all that increased traffic to them. Those streets are already stressed by non-resident cut-through traffic between N Druid Hills Rd. and Lawrenceville Hwy every morning and afternoon. More potholes appear every day — just what they need is more school buses and car-wielding high school students! The school system cannot just ignore the damage to area homeowners and the effects of added traffic to that quiet neighborhood. I have friends who live in there and are very upset that was mentioned as even a possibility. Just say “No.”
We need a magnet program in both SW Dekalb and North Dekalb. Obviously traffic sucks and north Dekalb should not have drive all the way to SW Dekalb and vice versa.
Also, it appears one of the largest growing areas has been and will continue to be the Cross Keys area. They have been ignored and pushed aside for years. 20 plus trailers and NOW the county says”hmm, I guess something should be done”. Why didn’t they pay attention to those students several years ago? Anyway, they deserve a new HS/MS that the students can be proud of! I think many are ESOL and so set up a program that can help these students succeed, build a school that will help these kids shine and not a place where both test scores and graduation rates are the lowest. Do not just shuffle them all over town for a short term fix.
P.S. School Board Members go drive around the county in traffic, look at where new developments are, see where the populations are growing, talk to parents in their own neighborhoods. It is like you all seem blind sided when a school reaches capacity even though parents have told you it is happening. If you left the building and checked out the community it would help.
What the other Amy said! And as for Stacey’s comments – it was a HS in the past. And it disrupted everything we’d ever known when DCSS created middle school!!! Somehow it seems like about the time middle school was put into the mix, the whole system started to slip in quality. We were set up for K-7 and 8-12 and it had been working just fine until in the 90’s when they put MS in there – 7-8 then 6-8 and now 5-8? OF course we’ve added K & sometimes pre-K and those kids have to sit somewhere. My kids were in the early parts of MS and the whole mindset was just horrible. The administration was telling us that the kids were growing up and didn’t need parental involvement at the schools any more! I’ve complained for years that the school does not look at the growth patterns – does not see the new subdivisions – and it takes apparently not just years but decades to build a new school.
We had 8th grade in HS and we were expected to act like Big Kids and we did. Never mind that students are average 5 months older now as they moved the “birthday cutoff” back from Dec 31 to Aug 1. We had the opportunity to take “advanced” classes starting at that point. Now they are talking about taking the 9th graders and pulling them out to a separate school? No way to take an extra math or science class with that setup, never mind language. The only thing that splitting them out does is to let DCSD warehouse them someplace else.
Allowing existing facilities across the county to deteriorate while there is overcrowding is appalling, but it continues.
Just to set a base on performance differences please note that the current CKHS with all its challenges performs at and sometime above Lakeside, Druid Hills, and Tucker in our area. 2016 data due out any day and expected to be even more positive.
CCRPI 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015
Chamblee 80.3, 78.6 , 79.8, 87.5
Cross Keys 63.6, 72.8 , 67.4, 74.4
Druid Hills 69.1, 68.3, 64.5, 77
Dunwoody 80.9, 79.1, 73.6, 86.1
Lakeside 71.2, 65.5 , 72.4, 77.6
Tucker 62.5, 66.9 , 62.1, 74.6
as these specially chosen children are the only ones who can bring in a respectable ranking in any way…WOW rankings still driving the great divide
Arabia Mountain is the ” crowning jewel” of DeKalb high schools. Their CCRPI score is 95.5 compared to Chamblee’s 87.5.
I think it would be a bad move to relocate the magnet program to south dekalb. There is a huge disparity in the quality of education our students receive via south dekalb versus north dekalb. I graduated from Shamrock High school (now Druid hills MS) and i like the idea of converting back into a high school. I personally think we should eliminate middle schools all together and go back to 8th-12th grade for high school and elementary K-7th.