AUSTIN ELEMENTARY REDISTRICTING
ROUND 1 PUBLIC MEETING
SEPTEMBER 26, 2019 7:00PM
DUNWOODY HS
That’s 450 seats more than the old AES.
Round 1 Community Survey – Click Here
Meeting Materials:
Agenda
Handout
Presentation
Map – Dunwoody Cluster Reference Map – Planning Units
Map – Dunwoody Cluster Reference Map – Land Use
Small Group Focus Questions
- What traffic concerns do you have that may impact the safe and timely transportation of students to and from
schools? - What community areas, such as homeowners or civic associations, should be considered as intact
neighborhoods? - What residential development are you concerned will influence the enrollment forecasts?
- To better balance over-crowding in the Dunwoody Cluster, should the new Austin ES open with portable
classrooms next Fall? Why or why not?
PRESENTATION
I thought the plan was for “a new 900-seat prototype elementary school”. Since when did the new Austin ES and Doraville United ES become 950 seat elementary schools?
Let me know if you have any other thoughts or questions
RELATED POSTS
Redistricting – Geographic Proximity
Austin And Doraville United
September 16, 2019 – According to board policy, recommendations for alterations in school attendance areas shall be primarily based on geographic proximity, school capacity; and projected enrollment. These schools will help alleviate overcrowding in the Dunwoody and Cross Keys clusters.
Redistricting Dunwoody Cluster Elementary Schools
August 20, 2019 – The new 900 seat Austin Elementary School (AES) will open in January for the existing old Austin ES students. Redistricted students will attend the new Austin ES in August 2020.
Austin Elementary in the Crier
May 7, 2019 – Confusion and rumors circle the destiny of the old Austin elementary school once the new Austin elementary school opens.
Old Austin Elementary School
April 16, 2019 – The New Austin Elementary School (AES) is on schedule to open January 2020. DeKalb Schools is looking at options to alleviate trailers in the Dunwoody Cluster. The administration is currently looking into using Old AES to that end.
Delay in New Austin ES Opening
Aug 24, 2018 – The DeKalb Schools Operations Division was informed last week that we are experiencing a delay in the opening of the new Austin ES. This has shifted the opening of the school from August 2019 (start of the first semester of 2019-2020 SY) to January 2020 (start of the second semester of 2019-2020 SY).
“Extremism in defense of liberty is no vice. Moderation in pursuit of justice is no virtue.”
Do these numbers represent lottery funded pre-k? How much of that is in each school?
What sort of available square footage exists on each school property for portable classrooms? Ie what is the maximum number of additional seats available for the site plan?
What is the long term plan to replace all trailers with actual buildings?
What is the plan for the old Shallowford ES property?
How does Kittredge factor into this? If it was eliminated how many students would go back to their home schools?
I totally get their math, Stan. They don’t care what enrollments are – they are only talking CAPACITY. So the current building apparently has a CAPACITY (the ability to hold) 500 students (at 711, the enrollment is currently 211 over capacity – similar to the DeKalb jail). The new building will have the capacity to hold 950 (formerly 900, but 50 seats were apparently added in the corners). At any rate, that is a 450 seat increase in CAPACITY from the old building. Notice, there is no mention of actual enrollment which is 711 – and the new building will only offer an additional 239 seats over current enrollment – so I’m betting there will be land cleared for trailers!
When did the new Austin become a 950 capacity school? When the school was pitched during the 2017 land swap, all the paperwork said 900 seats
How could the county possibly justify spending the money to move trailers from where they sit to Austin, then the net number of trailers is going down? And if you are going to consider that option for Austin, why not Kingsley?
Thanks Cere. That’s 450 seats capacity more than the old Austin ES.
Not one of those capacities listed match the capacity from the dekalb capacity planning site. Chestnut is over 100 seats off! Which is right?
https://www.dekalbschoolsga.org/operations/planning/
Austin ES 500
Chesnut ES 437
Dunwoody ES 925
Hightower ES 475
Kingsley ES 463
Vanderlyn ES 525
I imagine the numbers in this presentation are the latest. I’ll ask the administration to update the DeKalb Schools Operations Planning website data ASAP.
I can’t imagine how capacity numbers could change year to year for any reasonable reason. Especially not as drastically as Chestnut’s did. If you could investigate the discrepancy, that would be great!
Is anyone else confused by the District’s statement “Enrollment on September 16, 2019. Forecasted enrollment will be presented in Round 2.”
What is the “Forecasted enrollment” that will be presented in Round 2?
Didn’t they just completely overhaul the E-SPLOST-V project list because of changes in Enrollment Forecasts?
Why not use those numbers for this decision? Are they not valid anymore?
If they aren’t valid anymore, then the E-SPLOST/GO Bond decisions are just a bunch of hooey (but we already knew that…)
If they are updating the forecasts just for these Redistricting decisions, how do we know that the revised forecasts are correct and aren’t slanted based on what the District heard in Round 1 and what they want to have happen?
And why wouldn’t these updates be used for the E-SPLOST decisions?
This is a mess. An out and out mess.