Chamblee Redistricting Options – Meeting 3

The New John Lewis Elementary facility located at 2630 Skyland Drive will be opening Fall 2019.
Public Input: Round 3 (November 27, 2018, 7:00 PM at Cross Keys HS)

John Lewis Elementary School
• Opening August 2019
• 900+ seat school
• 500+ seats of available capacity
• John R. Lewis ES is located in the current Chamblee Cluster
• Redistricting will go into effect in August 2019
▪ Students rising into 5th, 8th, 11th, and 12th grades will have the option to continue in their former school, with no transportation provided

COMMENTS FROM ROUND 2
▪ Overall concern was keeping neighborhoods intact (Ashford Park, Drew Valley, Wake Forest)
▪ Concerns about impact of redistricting on students attending the German Immersion Program at Ashford Park ES
▪ John Lewis ES should relieve Woodward ES, Montclair ES, and Dresden ES

STAFF RECOMMENDED PLAN
▪ The plan focuses on overcrowding at Woodward ES and Montclair ES.
▪ Minimized impact on neighborhoods in the Ashford Park Elementary area
▪ Dresden ES will be relieved by the new Cross Keys North ES in Fall 2020

Round 2 Redistricting Maps:

Current Overcrowding
▪ Woodward ES (114%)
▪ Montclair ES (109%)
▪ Dresden ES (138%)

3‐YEAR REDISTRICTING PROCESS

3-YEAR REDISTRICTING PROCESS
Redistricting Process Estimated Opening School
Fall 2018 Fall 2019 New John R. Lewis Elementary School
Fall 2019 Fall 2020 New Doraville Elementary School
Fall 2020 Fall 2021 Cross Keys Middle School Conversion, New Cross Keys High School, Chamblee Charter High School Building Addition

22 responses to “Chamblee Redistricting Options – Meeting 3

  1. JOHN T CARLTON

    Thanks for posting. Map attachments/links do not appear to work. We get an error message on the DeKalb homepage.

  2. Frustrated DeKalb Parent

    The gerrymandering makes no sense. Someone who could walk to Woodward ES will be transferred to Lewis?

  3. John, Map links should be working now. –Stan

  4. This doesn’t pass the smell test… Ashford Park is at 135% capacity and it isn’t even included in the “Current Overcrowding” list above and will have no relief with this plan. Hmmm…sounds like AP is the favored child. Frustrated Dekalb Parent called it right: Gerrymandering

  5. More proof that the administration plays favorites with schools. Ashford Park is virtually untouched because the vocal parents didn’t want to be redistricted. The considerations listed on the district’s website are secondary to the desire to not upset some people.

  6. AB, Why do you say, “It will have no relief with this plan?” All those streets around the new elementary school used to go to Ashford Park ES and will now go to the new elementary school.

  7. APES = entitled brats

  8. DSW2Contributor

    Frustrated DeKalb Parent,
    The school is named for John Lewis, so of course its boundaries have to be gerrymandered — that is how John Lewis has kept his seat in Congress all these years!

  9. Not clear how you can build a new elementary school in the Ashford Park neighborhood and not send more Ashford park residents to the school. Long skinny attendance zones filled with apartment kids is so wrong.

  10. Cult of Reason

    Considering that more than a quarter of its students are on the free lunch program and they’re only about half white, I’d hardly call Ashford Park an elitist school. I think the issue is that if a parent sends their kids to a top-10% school and they find out they might have to send them to a bottom 10% school, they’ll switch to a private school or just move away. This isn’t an Ashford Park mentality; this is a human being mentality. I’m surprised to see so many people call children at a successful school entitled brats as well… but that goes without saying. Breaking up a successful school won’t make things any better for Dekalb.

  11. Cult of Reason, What bottom 10% school are you referring to? JLES hasn’t opened yet. I can say that Cross Keys HS is one of the top performing high schools in the county.

  12. Stan,
    I’m surprised at your statement.

    I understand that the principal of JLES was told by DCSD that the students currently attending JLES would be able to attend the new building when it opened. Because the new building is much larger, more students from Montclair ES and Woodward ES will be redistricted to JLES.

    So I would argue that the 2017 and 2018 CCRPI scores for JLES, Montclair ES, and Woodward ES are relevant.

    The comparison of these scores with those of Ashford Park are enough to give any parent pause:

    2017 CCRPI APES = 97.5 JLES = 67 Woodward ES = 59.2 Montclair ES = 52.7

    2018 CCRPI APES = 91.6 JLES = 62 Woodward ES = 65.1 Montclair ES = 65

    Why not present a strong and convincing plan for how a redistricting plan can be a “win win” result for everyone?

    Pretending that these differences don’t exist, or that they will magically be addressed just by adding a few more “less needy” students to the mix, is foolish.

  13. We can attempt to use the CCRPI for the current JLES, Montclair, Woodward and APES to estimate the academics at the new JLES. That somewhat assumes academic homogeneity across a school’s attendance zone.

    Win-win is in the eyes of the beholder. I can say that I don’t support social engineering. I do value public input.

  14. JLES is on the edge of its attendance zone – how does that make any sense for a new school unless gerrymandering is going on?

    @ Stan, if the proposed attendance lines will relive APES overcrowding, please share how many APES students are projected to move to JLES and what is the projected over-capacity percentage once you take those students away?

  15. Good question AB. Apparently Dan Drake said there are new projection numbers and that he doesn’t expect anybody from the Lakeside HS cluster getting redistricted to the new CKHS either as originally expected. I’ll ask Drake tomorrow at the board meeting about the new projection numbers and expected utilization of the various over crowded schools in the area.

  16. Cult of Reason

    The intention of the elementary school ways always to relieve Cross Keys overcrowding so I think the latest map does make sense.
    “Several months ago, the city was approached by the DeKalb Board of Education with an intriguing proposal,” said Brookhaven Mayor John Ernst. “They needed land for a school to help with overcrowding occurring along the Buford Highway Corridor and we had plans to build brand new parks. The board will get the land that is currently Skyland Park for John Lewis Elementary and Brookhaven will get this land right next door for a brand new park.”
    https://www.mdjonline.com/neighbor_newspapers/dekalb/news/brookhaven-board-of-education-begin-work-on-new-park-school/article_29190668-70a0-11e7-ac52-675b9f66d7e2.html

    The fact that APES is overcrowded aside, this would have absolutely been viewed as a bait and switch if they took a large chunk of students from Ashford Park as well.

  17. @ Stan – thanks for asking. Will look forward to learning the responses Mr. Drake provides.

    @ Cult – not following your comment. Please clarify.

  18. Cult of Reason

    The quote from the mayor only mentions Buford Highway Corridor overcrowding, not Ashford Park Elementary overcrowding. There are plenty of other articles (granted, articles not written by public officials) that directly state JL is being built as a remedy for Montclair, Dresden and Woodward (and Fernbank of course) as well. I don’t see anything on record saying that Ashford Park was intended to be a primary feeder school for the new elementary school. As a result the neighborhood felt like the rug was pulled out from underneath them in the previous meeting when a map was drawn to pull kids from north of Dresden Dr and the west of the new school.

  19. “We can attempt to use the CCRPI for the current JLES, Montclair, Woodward and APES to estimate the academics at the new JLES. That somewhat assumes academic homogeneity across a school’s attendance zone.”

    I think that’s a pretty safe assumption here. The academic performance across the 3 schools is pretty consistent. Actually, the performance of all of the Buford Corridor schools is pretty consistent (Cary Reynolds and Hightower have slightly higher Content Mastery scores). The only reason it wouldn’t be is if the new building brings in students that aren’t currently enrolled at the three schools.

    Per AB’s question, I believe the answer has been included already on the redistricting website.
    Per sr-jl-r3-overview-map.pdf, 22 students from APES will transfer to JLES.
    Per jl-overview-poster-r2-min.pdf and factoring in the new information, I would think APES capacity would be about 128%.

    As Cult of Reason noted, Brookhaven officials intention in working with the school district was not to relieve over crowding at APES, but to relieve overcrowding at Montclair/Woodward and bring the students from Fernbank/JLES back to Brookhaven.

  20. One of the products of the Secondary Feasibility Study was the estimated redistricting. When E-SPLOST V projects are completed, this was the estimated redistricting …

    At the board meeting on Monday, Dan Drake said that new student population forecasting numbers will be shared with the public in the next couple months. Given these new population forecasts, Drake doesn’t anticipate any redistricting from the Lakeside Cluster to the Cross Keys Cluster.

    Drake did go on to say, he still anticipates roughly 350 students will be redistricted from the Chamblee Cluster to the Cross Keys Cluster. The current JLES redistricting plan only redistricts 20 – 30 students. Drake mentioned that a majority of the redistricting will be done when the new Cross Keys HS comes online.

  21. @ Stan here is my question… Why is the world is 150 HMS students going to the new CKMS? Please do not tell me that Sagamore parents are going to be consistantly going back and forth across I85 daily to get their students respected schools. That makes no sense. IF 150 have to move then wouldn’t they go to Sequoyah since it is closer? Also, now Region 1 is going to have 4 middle schools and 3 high schools. I am just curious… Taking those many students out, talking in today’s enrollment numbers, Sequoyah will only have about 500 students in it. Also, I thought the county was against split feeders? This sure is creating one.

    Seems to me the county and Dan Drake, threw spaghetti against the wall and is praying something sticks.

  22. Hey Lynn, There is the crazy expectation that the entire Cross Keys High School population will cross over 85, so I’m not sure what they are thinking.