The Dunwoody Crier is reporting this week that many are not happy with the E-SPLOST Project List scheduled to be voted on at Monday’s board meeting.
Austin ES Parent Council Supports Honoring City Lines
Dick Williams for the Crier reports,
“Another major voice has been raised in the community discussion over how best to re-district north DeKalb public schools.
The school council of Austin Elementary School in Dunwoody has voted to oppose the expansions of Dunwoody High and Peachtree Charter Middle schools. The council at Montgomery Elementary in Brookhaven has taken the same position.
‘We believe that children should attend schools within their own municipalities and priority should be placed on creating a new (school) cluster in the city of Doraville.’ … Continue Reading Here >>“
$23 million changed to $16 million
Linda Bannister Talks Back To the Crier,
“The DeKalb County School District has again modified plans for spending hundreds of millions of e-SPLOST dollars on school additions in our county. When schools in Dunwoody sent out email blasts asking for parents to quickly support ‘Plan B’ via an online survey, we were told of a $23 million investment at Dunwoody High School. Talks of new locker rooms, a new gym, and dedicated rooms for chorus and drama were spread among the community.
When it comes to DeKalb, you can’t believe anything they tell you. The $23 million changed to $16 million as soon as the online vote was closed.” Continue Reading Here >>
What is DHS Getting for $16 Million?
In a letter to the Crier, Rick Callihan writes,
“Dunwoody High School has lots of great students, staff, and teachers, but there are several things that need improved at our local high school. Unfortunately, the $16 million e-SPLOST project currently being pushed for DHS not only fails to address the school’s shortcomings, it will make things worse …
DHS gets $16 million, making room for more desks and hundreds more students, but not much else. Simply adding desks and students while ignoring common areas and dedicated space for the arts and athletics is a bad idea.” Continue Reading Here >>
Dunwoody Residents are not Alone in Feeling Betrayed and Misled
Alice White writes,
“Dunwoody residents are not alone in feeling betrayed and misled by DeKalb. Chamblee and Lakeside parents, as well as parents at several of their feeder elementary schools, have organized to delay a final vote on the expenditure of the e-SPLOST funds.
It is disappointing that we have not seen any public statements from our city council members on this topic. These massive school additions impact homeowners, especially those residing near Vanderlyn and DHS.” Continue Reading Here >>
“Extremism in defense of liberty is no vice. Moderation in pursuit of justice is no virtue.”
A. Austin’s letter asks us to consider Doraville’s projected growth. But DHS is already in an almost +300 overcrowding situation. Where do we send those kids already in attendance if we don’t expand, other than redistricting to the discussed new Doraville HS? The phrase, “Keep Dunwoody kids in Dunwoody schools” will not be possible without expansions at already overcrowded DHS and PCMS. And what of Dunwoody’s projected growth?
B. While there are some Dunwoody residents who do not want to see expansion of DHS and PCMS, I would argue that the vast majority, including all but Austin councils would like to actually keep Dunwoody kids in Dunwoody schools by expanding the middle and high schools.
Laura, you are incorrect. If Hightower which is in Doraville is redistricted, DHS and PCMS are not overcrowded. The few kids from Dunwoody at Hightower should stay in Dunwoody.
If we add on, where would it stop? When we have no space for sports, band, etc? It’s just a bad idea.
Think about this too. We already know that DeKalb is happy to overcrowd us. So, if we add 600 seats, what’s to say that they don’t add 600 kids and keep us 300 overcrowded?
Good Morning Laura McEwen.
Good question. There are roughly 130 students per grade at High Tower. There are also a number of students from Doraville in the Dunwoody cluster that do not attend High Tower. So, that’s 400 – 600 students that would go to the Doraville High School that would otherwise be at Dunwoody High School. I imagine that number would grow as the population in Doraville grows.
If enrollment at Dunwoody HS goes up another 600 students, DHS can split into two Dunwoody high schools … as opposed to adding 600 seats every 5 to 10 years … that solution is not scalable.
Every school will soon be overcrowded and disfunctional with lack of common spaces. You can’t fix everything with a single new school. The only solution to this whole mess is to build a second story on every school, turn all the middle schools back into high schools, and turn the elementary schools back into K-8 schools. Then there is room for everyone and everyone gets to stay in their neighborhood. But that doesn’t satisfy the Project Forced Diversity camp. The only reason we have middle schools to begin with was so that unelected school planners could engineer demographics to their liking. Isn’t it a pain for everyone as they drive hours through traffic to the nearest miserable overcrowded mega school? Wish we could do a public referendum to get rid of middle schools.
I’d actually support getting rid of MSes. Waste of sites. K-7/8 and 9-12 is dandy.
Think it is time for somebody to be held accountable for this fiasco. I do not know other peoples feelings but I know I will never vote in favor of ESPLOST without a known list of projects. Also still wonder how Board members can vote for this list of projects when they do not know which students will be redistricted where. Also think spending over $14,000,000.00 on artificial turf for practice fields could be spent elsewhere. I know when I voted for ESPLOST thought the money was to improve the education. Not sure how artificial turf improves anybody’s education. Why DCSD Planning Dept. can’t see further than the end of their nose is beyond me. Why do we keep spending money on the same schools is beyond imagination. Now we have to spend millions of dollars to build parking decks so we can keep adding on to the same schools. Dekalb County citizens need to demand better planning from DCSD!