In March, the DeKalb Board of Education approved $2.5 million for the purchase of trailers. The Cross Keys redistricting plan will result in a net reduction of approximately 15 trailer classrooms in the Cross Keys Cluster.
Modular and Portable Classroom Deployment Plan
This “Modular and Portable Classroom Deployment Plan” is for the 2016-17 School Year and is subject to change based upon feedback from the Allotments Department, Principals and Regional Superintendents.
Trailer Types:
- Singles – Single classroom units approximately 14’ x 45’ which are most commonly used throughout the District.
- Quads – Quads contain four individual classrooms and a set of Boys/Girls Restrooms. These units are approximately 66’ x 66’ and are primarily used at middle and high schools.
- Restroom Unit – A standalone set of a set of Boys/Girls Restroom used in conjunction with single classroom units.
Trailers Removed
(19 singles) from the following locations:
| Region | School | Trailers | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cary Reynolds ES | remove 5 singles | (25 to 20) * |
| 1 | Dresden ES | remove 6 singles | (26 to 20) * |
| 3 | Dunaire ES | remove 3 singles | (12 to 9) |
| 1 | Montclair ES | remove 4 singles | (18 to 14) * |
| 2 | Sagamore Hills ES | remove 1 single | (6 to 5) |
*Note: These schools were included in the Cross Keys Redistricting Plan. Staff originally estimated the possible reduction of approximately 30 modular/portable classroom units. This summer, staff will remove 15 units from these three schools, according to the administration, due to the public input regarding families who may move to alternative housing locations in order to remain within their current school’s attendance area in lieu of being redistricted.
Trailers Added
(47 singles and 3 quads) to the following school locations due to enrollment
| Region | School | Trailers | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ashford Park ES | add 3 singles | (5 to 8) |
| 2 | Briarlake ES | add 2 singles | (1 to 3) |
| 5 | Canby Lane ES | add 2 singles | (0 to 2) |
| 1 | Dunwoody ES | add 4 singles | (1 to 5) |
| 1 | Dunwoody HS | add 1 single | (4 to 5) |
| 3 | Eldridge Miller ES | add 5 singles | (0 to 5) |
| 4 | Fairington ES | add 1 single | (2 to 3) |
| 5 | Flat Shoals ES | add 3 singles | (0 to 3) |
| 2 | Hawthorne ES | add 1 single | (1 to 2) |
| 2 | Henderson Mill ES | add 2 singles | (5 to 7) |
| 2 | Idlewood ES | add 2 singles | (7 to 9) |
| ISC (Midway) | add 2 singles | (0 to 2) | |
| 2 | Laurel Ridge ES | add 2 singles | (0 to 2) |
| 2 | Livsey ES | add 1 single | (6 to 7) |
| 2 | McLendon ES | add 3 singles | (0 to 3) |
| 1 | Montgomery ES | add 2 singles | (5 to 7) |
| 2 | Oak Grove ES | add 1 single | (3 to 4) |
| 4 | Panola Way ES | add 3 singles | (0 to 3) |
| 5 | Peachcrest ES | add 5 singles | (0 to 5) |
| 1 | Peachtree Charter MS | add 1 quad | (12 to 16) |
| 1 | Sequoyah MS | add 2 quads | (17 to 25) |
| 4 | Stoneview ES | add 2 singles | (2 to 4) |
Trailers added or removed
(21 singles and 1 restroom) due to construction activity at the following schools:
- Clifton ES, remove 3 singles (Students, faculty and staff will be temporarily moving to former Terry Mill ES this fall)
- Redan HS, remove 5 singles (New addition will be completed this fall)
- Terry Mill ES, add 5 singles (3 singles from Clifton ES and 2 singles from Redan HS)
- Miller Gove MS, add 16 singles and 1 restroom unit (3 singles from Redan HS and 13 new singles plus 1 new restroom)
Additionally
To support the above plan, the district has ordered new modular/portable classroom units (52 singles, 3 quads, 1 restroom):
- 14 for construction: 13 new singles and 1 new restroom for construction at Miller Grove MS ($510,349)
- 42 for capacity: 39 new singles and 3 new quads for capacity and replacement of existing units ($1,964,709)
The district is in the process of disposing of/auctioning 22 singles that are beyond their useful life.
“Extremism in defense of liberty is no vice. Moderation in pursuit of justice is no virtue.”
Sad. This just looks like the school district is once again rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.
Once again, this is an issue long reported on by the two DSW blogs. All of the bloggers gave up on the district ever being able to get it together. A major redistricting overhaul needs to take place. This weird idea of busing kids all over the county in and out of Cross Keys, various ‘magnet’ and specialty schools and other over-crowded areas is nothing but a band-aid to quiet the squeaky wheels. Most of those left behind are still spending their days in a sub-par school. Now all we have a discombobulated mishmash of buses moving kids all over the county from random school to random school. How much is this extra transportation costing? Maybe enough to build REAL classrooms for those spending their days in trailers?
Read some of these relevant old posts. Sore little has actually changed over the last 5-6 years and 3 or 4 changes of leadership. I continue to share these old posts as sadly, there is nothing new to write about in reality.
http://dekalbschoolwatch.blogspot.com/2009/02/case-for-re-allocating-splost-3-funding.html
http://dekalbschoolwatch.blogspot.com/2010/05/north-vs-central-vs-south-whats-deal.html
http://dekalbschoolwatch.blogspot.com/2011/04/we-told-you-it-was-dumb-idea-to-put.html
https://dekalbschoolwatch.wordpress.com/2012/01/25/dcss-vacant-properties-2/
https://dekalbschoolwatch.wordpress.com/2013/09/07/whats-up-with-the-trailers/
https://dekalbschoolwatch.wordpress.com/2013/11/17/the-numbers-tell-the-story/
https://dekalbschoolwatch.wordpress.com/2015/04/17/and-again-the-more-things-change-the-more-they-stay-the-same/
Unbelievable!
Do we have any faith that DCS has the skills, planning abilities, care or urgency to logistically accomplish this trailer park round-robin? Sounds more like FEMA addressing the needs of the Katrina flood victims. We know how well that went.
What was Super Thumond doing, other than schmoozing and telling share cropper stories, during his reign? Photos of green moldy trailers were exposed during that time. Still using those? No doubt!
Suggestion: put all administrative offices and departments in trailers and give the children of DC the Palace! Sell the fleet of white cars bought while DCS was too cheap to pay its staff.
Moving 100s of children and their portables seems like another silly and caotic solution, typical of DCS. Why not load up school buses of kids, along with teachers, and educate children on the buses. Just as crazy? At least they could pull up to Q-Trip and use their restrooms every hour.
What is the smart plan? Heads up, kids are moving in as we speak. Quick! Hurry, before the next financial crisis and administrative lawsuits suck the finances away from schools, again.
What are your goals after 2017-2018? More trailers loaded with kids aimlessly transferred to more schools? Exhausting!
Each time I drive by PCMS and look at those trailers my blood boils. I was in attendance at the preliminary meeting for the new PCMS facility. School district officials were point-blank told that building the new PCMS based on current enrollment was short-sighted. They refused to acknowledge all the data that pointed to rising enrollment in the area. I think the comment was “well, we’ll redistrict”. It’s too bad the district was so stubborn, there was plenty of land to build a larger facility.
how many children can sit in a single trailer?
The $2.5 million to Mobile Modular Management Corporation includes the purchase and placement of the trailers. The district will be responsible for ramps, connectivity, etc. As you probably know, this isn’t the school district’s first rodeo with this many trailers.
We saw this coming in 2011 when SPLOST IV passed. Aside from Cross Keys, it’s hard to say exactly what capital projects will be included in the SPLOST V Project List.
Amanda,
I believe the number of students in a trailer is driven by class size and not the physical limits of the trailer.
FYI, when trailers were at my child’s high school, I was told that 17 students was the maximum class size for a trailer classroom. Compared to 30+ students in a regular classroom, that wasn’t bad.
Does anyone know if this limit is enforced at other schools? I have been told anecdotally that this limit is not enforced at Cross Keys High School.
Anonymous,
17 is the limit for a single-wide. Double-wides and quads are bigger. However, the limit is NOT enforced. I have spoken to teachers from Cary Reynolds Elementary, Henderson Mill Elementary, and Dresden Elementary who have told me they were told the limit is 24, but that isn’t a “hard and fast rule.” One teacher at Cary Reynolds has 28 when all the students are present.
Stan,
Last August the district owned 332 portable classrooms and 4 portable restroom. It looks like the district is adding 105 and one restroom while removing 22 trailers from the inventory. If that is correct, the district will own over 400 portable classrooms.
20 years of SPLOST and the district ends up with 400+ trailers.
At Vanderlyn ES the entire 4th and 5th grade are in modular trailers. This Sept 2015 Class Size Analysis says the average class size for 4th and 5th grades there is 21 students. Dresden ES has 26 Singles and their 4th and 5th grade average class sizes are 26 and 25 students respectively.
Surely there are square foot differences between a Single and a room in a Modular. It also seems plausible that you can physically fit more elementary students into a room than you can high school students.
We have been told 28 for middle and high school in a single wide. Wouldn’t there be some regulations related to occupancy established by the fire marshal?
Parents have engaged the DeKalb fire marshall(s) in the past by reporting what are clear violations of rules only to have no action taken. But if the fire marshall visits an elementary school and there are pictures hanging on too much of the wall, they make the schools take them down.
But too many kids in a trailer — too many kids in a building, true fire hazards and danger (in terms of emergency evacuations) they do nothing.
Stan
The administration needs to be vigilant about checking proof of residence in the Cross Keys cluster next year.
The problem with trailers in Dekalb is that they become permanent spaces at our schools. Dekalb should spend the money for quads even at elementary schools. The classroom spaces are better and overcrowded schools don’t have the restrooms they really need. When you assign 25-30 middle schoolers to a narrow trailer, they literally sit shoulder to shoulder and there are no good seats. The air/heat is noisy. When it rains kids get wet.
DCS administrators and BoE members know and have known about all the requirements, and the needs of overcrowded schools, noisy and distracting heater/ air conditioners, fire codes, wet and drenched children, lack of toilets, added lunch shifts – prompting breakfast-2-dinner shifts, old-dirty-moldy trailers causing health problems in many children and teachers. Trailors were always meant to be temporary, not a permanent refugee camp where teachers are asked to make it work and “just shut up” about it.
DC & DCS has known for years the county’s yearly growth patterns and the needs of the communities. No secrets! What is frustrating, year after year, to watch new administrators and Board members continue down the same path of “making it work” with old schools, patches upon patches. Where is the evidence of the millions of dollars poured into the system? Same old non-renovated schools, holes in parking lots, teachers creating something out of nothing. Yet, they better yield high test scores or else!!!
The other Metro systems, even APS, have renovated their schools…oh no…not DCS. We can rent out our schools to the film industry for 1950s films, including dark hallways, dark lockers and empty libraries.
We need a highly charged superintendent who breathes new life into a once number #1 school system.
The last 30+ years, the administrators killed it. Dead and tired! Pathetic!
Looking at the number of trailers scheduled for Sequoyah MS and Peachtree Charter MS , I am still puzzled as to why Chamblee MS wasn’t included in any discussion of relieving overcrowding. I know what was said, “no room, small physical plant….but other schools have those issues as well.
These are the issues I have been trying to make sure that I as a teacher am not quiet about. I have to say that the longer I hear ppl talk about these issues, the more I realize why ppl have been advocating for independent school district creation. And why everyone is so fed up. I write because I want to empower other teachers and administrators to be a part of the solution, but I realize it seems a pretty big uphill battle. I want the affected communities to be armed with the knowledge they may or may not have had. I’ve just written some of my ideas for the upcoming construction and redistricting. Maybe DCSD will pay attention to these issues this time around because the trailer swap has definitely proved pointless in the past as everyone knows. I have faith that Dr. Green has the right motivations and the right skills to do it. (But again, I know I am rather new to DCSD politics and the like.) Basically, I just want to say thank you for all of y’alls tireless efforts to work to make DCSD a place where all students can get a top-notch education. Seriously, thank you. https://georgianeducator.org/2016/04/09/dekalb-county-schools-redistricting-how-will-you-respond/