Category Archives: Redistricting

DeKalb – SPLOST V – Facility Condition Improvements

Posted on September 30, 2016 by | 13 comments

What facilities will be renovated with SPLOST V funds collected over the next 5 years? There will be five regional meetings in October to discuss the administration’s recommendation for facility improvements and gather feedback related to the development of the final 2017‐2022 E‐SPLOST V project list.
DeKalb Schools ESPLOST V
On May 24, 2016, the voters of DeKalb approved E-SPLOST V (Education Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax – an additional penny sales tax levy for capital improvements for schools.)
Related Docs
.pdf link icon  Abbreviated referendum – Just Dekalb’s part
.pdf link icon  Complete 15 page Referendum
Focus Area Funding Allocation

Resolution Item $ millions Percentage
1. Safety and Security $15 3%
2. New Facilities and Additions $230 46%
3. Facility Condition Improvements $100 20%
4. Technology Improvements,incl. ERP $65 13%
5.Buses, Vehicles, and Other Capital Equipment $40 8%
Management and Contingency $50 10%
Totals $500 100%

New Facilities and Additions
$60 million is committed to building two new elementary schools in the Cross Keys area (one of them being the new elementary school in Brookhaven at Skyland Park). Earlier this week, the administration presented its Final Recommendation born from the Secondary Feasibility Study to address over crowding in North DeKalb middle and high schools.
Redistricting

[poll id=”2″]

Region 1 Cluster By Attendance Zones
Presumably from the Student Move Assumptions above, these would be the region 1 clusters:
• Chamblee Cluster – Montgomery ES, Huntley Hills ES, Cary Reynolds ES, Dresden ES, Kittredge
• Brookhaven Cluster – Ashford Park ES, Sagamore Hills ES, Montclair ES, Woodward ES, John Lewis ES
• Dunwoody Cluster – Hightower ES, Austin ES, Vanderlyn ES, Dunwoody ES, Kingsley ES, Chesnut ES
Condition of Current Facilities
These detailed assessments for each school can be found at DeKalb Schools Building S.P.A.C.E.S. Initiative
• Facility Condition Assessment (FCA) ‐ Measures the amount of deferred maintenance in the building’s major systems.
• Facility Educational Adequacy Assessment (FEAA) ‐ Measures how well the facility supports the educational programs that it houses.
• Enrollment ‐ The number of students (PK‐12) at a school based on official October student counts in 2015 and projected enrollment through 2022.
• Capacity ‐ A school’s capacity is the number of students which can be accommodated in the facility given the specific educational program offerings.
• Utilization ‐ Calculated by dividing the school’s current/projected enrollment by the capacity of the facility. (The utilization rate is used to determine if the facility has excess space or insufficient space for the school’s enrollment at a given time. )
Year 2022 – Projected Elementary School Data, by Region

REGION FCA FEAA ENROLLMENT 2022 CAPACITY DIFFERENCE 2022 UTILIZATION 2022
1 55 64 10,967 8,981 -1,986 122%
2 49 72 9,702 10,003 301 97%
3 58 74 10,148 10,222 74 99%
4 57 68 6,892 7,364 472 94%
5 69 77 8,164 9,603 1,439 85%
All 57 71 45,873 46,173 300 99%

Year 2022 – Projected Middle School Data, by Region

REGION FCA FEAA ENROLLMENT 2022 CAPACITY DIFFERENCE 2022 UTILIZATION 2022
1 92 75 4,959 3,532 -1,427 140%
2 78 72 4,178 3,693 -485 113%
3 83 81 4,345 5,380 1,035 81%
4 50 77 4,336 4,616 280 94%
5 75 77 3,551 5,027 1,476 71%
All 74 76 21,369 22,248 879 96%

Year 2022 – Projected High School Data, by Region

REGION FCA FEAA ENROLLMENT 2022 CAPACITY DIFFERENCE 2022 UTILIZATION 2022
1 94 76 6,707 4,621 -2,086 145%
2 88 79 5,986 4,928 -1,058 121%
3 73 71 5,591 5,651 60 99%
4 86 83 6,012 7,166 1,154 84%
5 89 74 3,721 5,519 1,798 67%
All 85 76 28,017 27,884 -133 100%

 

Timeline
Five regional meetings to discus and gather feedback related to the development of the 2017‐2022 E‐SPLOST V project list.
Oct 4 – 18, 2016
Each public hearing will be at 7 p.m. at the following locations:
• Oct. 4, 2016 at Tucker High School (Region 2)
• Oct. 11, 2016 at Miller Grove High School (Region 4)
• Oct. 13, 2016 at Chamblee High School (Region 1)
• Oct. 17, 2016 at Columbia High School (Region 5)
• Oct. 18, 2016 at Stone Mountain High School (Region 3)
Oct 4 – 24, 2016
• Online Survey on draft E-SPLOST project list
Nov 7, 2016
• Board COW discussion on E-SPLOST project list
Dec 5, 2016
• Formal Board approval of E-SPLOST project list

13 Comments

Posted in Redistricting, SPLOST

Relocating Chamblee Magnets

Posted on July 27, 2016 by | 84 comments

Would moving the Chamblee magnet program to Southwest DeKalb HS kill the magnet program for Region 1 and Region 2?

The purpose of the Secondary School Facility Planning and Feasibility Study is to develop long-term plans for addressing capacity needs of the district’s middle schools and high schools.
Option 2B includes – Chamblee HS: Relocate 650 students (Magnet) to Southwest DeKalb HS
  Pros & Cons
  Cost Estimates
  DeKalb Secondary School Facility Planning and Feasibility Study
  Chamblee Magnet Program – Is it moving?
Online Comments
Evan – I think there’s a flaw in the thinking around option 2b, in that it assumes that all of the children in the Chamblee magnets will follow the magnet program when it moves 20 miles away.  I suspect that the percentage who choose to do so will be less than 100%, and those that do not choose to do so will end up returning to the schools in their attendance zone, increasing their populations.
Kim – Who benefits from the Magnet being located in differing places. Obviously, Dunwoody residents benefit from it being at CCHS versus say, Avondale or Stone Mountain. But the numbers show that EVEN located at CCHS the majority of the enrollment comes from communities to its south.  I get that moving the DeKalb County High Achievers Magnet for High Achievers from CCHS to really anywhere farther south is a negative impact on transportation for Dunwoody parents. I think it is equally important to consider the improvement it would make for the overwhelming majority of the current enrollment. Let’s agree that wherever it is located will have winners and losers. Right now, yes, Dunwoody is a winner with the current location. That is hard to argue with.
Empirical Data –  There is currently no study on who would be willing to transfer down to SW DeKalb HS if Chamblee moved, so let’s look at the data we do have.  The Non-Resident Attendee Matrices will tell us how many students are currently willing to go to a high achievers magnet across town.

Non-Resident Attendee Matrices
.pdf link icon  ES October 2015
.pdf link icon  MS October 2015
.pdf link icon  HS October 2015

Magnet schools for high achievers
DeKalb County operates six magnet schools for high achievers:

  • Kittredge Magnet School (Region 1)
  • Wadsworth Magnet School (Region 5)
  • Chamblee Middle School (Region 1)
  • Chapel Hill Middle School (Region 4)
  • Chamblee Charter High School (Region 1)
  • Southwest DeKalb High School (Region 4)

Elementary School Summary – Non-Resident Attendee Matrices
These are the number of students from each region that go to Kittredge and Wadsworth magnet programs as of Oct 2015. Looks like very few students from Region 1 & 2 are going South to Wadsworth and very few students from Region 3 & 4 are going North to Kittredge.

School Total REGION I REGION II REGION III REGION IV REGION V
Kittredge 321 181 104 23 10 3
Wadsworth 145 1 8 65 52 19
Total 466 182 112 88 62 22

High School Summary – Non-Resident Attendee Matrices
NOTE: These numbers do not reflect the number of students zoned for Chamblee that attend the magnet and zoned for SWD that attend the magnet there. It looks like the high schools tell a different story. Next to nobody from Regions 1 & 2 are willing to go down to Southwest DeKalb High School, while quite a few people from South DeKalb are willing to make the trek up to Region 1. (I think we have our answer)

School Total REGION I REGION II REGION III REGION IV REGION V
Chamblee 636 120 223 153 87 53
SW DeKalb 228 0 5 40 82 101
Total 864 120 228 193 169 154

Number of students attending a magnet from each school

Reg High School Chamblee SW DeKalb
1 Chamblee 1
1 Cross Keys 46
1 Dunwoody 74
2 Druid Hills 33 2
2 Lakeside 113
2 Tucker HS 77 3
3 Clarkston 41 9
3 Redan 39 12
3 Stephenson 51 13
3 Stone Mountain 22 6
4 Lithonia 19 20
4 Miller Grove 14 9
4 MLK ,Jr. 36 53
4 SW DeKalb 18
5 Cedar Grove 17 31
5 Columbia 8 24
5 McNair 13 20
5 Towers 15 26

Elementary Schools

Region School Kittredge Wadsworth
1 Ashford Park ES 12
1 Austin ES 18
1 Cary Reynolds ES 5
1 Chesnut ES 14 1
1 Dresden ES 1
1 Dunwoody ES 24
1 Henderson Mill ES 14
1 Hightower ES 3
1 Huntley Hills ES 7
1 Kingsley ES 10
1 Laurel Ridge ES 9
1 Livsey ES 10
1 Montclair ES 1
1 Montgomery ES 29
1 Vanderlyn ES 22
1 Woodward ES 2
2 Avondale ES 1
2 Briar Vista ES 2
2 Briarlake ES 16
2 Brockett ES 6
2 E. L. Miller ES 1
2 Evansdale ES 16 1
2 Fernbank ES 5
2 Hawthorne ES 12
2 Idlewood ES 1 1
2 Jolly ES 2
2 McLendon ES 1
2 Midvale ES 4
2 Oak Grove ES 26
2 Pleasantdale ES 3
2 Sagamore Hills ES 10
2 Smoke Rise ES 2 1
2 Stone Mill ES 1
3 Allgood ES 2 1
3 Browns Mill ES 1 10
3 Chapel Hill ES 8
3 Dunaire ES 2 3
3 Fairington ES 1 2
3 Hambrick ES 3 3
3 Indian Creek ES 2 2
3 Panola Way ES 3
3 Pine Ridge ES 4 4
3 Princeton ES 3 9
3 Redan ES 1 2
3 Rock Chapel ES 6
3 Rockbridge ES 2 3
3 Shadow Rock ES 1 8
3 Stone Mountain ES 1 1
4 Bob Mathis ES 1 6
4 Canby Lane ES 2 4
4 Columbia ES 2
4 Flat Rock ES 4 16
4 Kelley Lake ES 2
4 Murphey Candler ES 6
4 Oak View ES 2 4
4 Peachcrest ES 3
4 Rainbow ES 1
4 Stoneview ES 1 3
4 Woodridge ES 5
5 Cedar Grove ES 2 4
5 Clifton ES 2
5 Flat Shoals ES
5 McNair ES DLA 1 2
5 Meadowview ES 2
5 Rowland ES 4
5 Snapfinger ES 5
5 Toney ES

It is also worth noting that if the Chamblee magnet programs move, there would no longer be any magnet programs West of highway 85. Here are the other magnet programs in the county.
Magnet schools of the arts

  • DeKalb Elementary School of the Arts (Region 2)
  • DeKalb School of the Arts (Region 2)

Other magnet schools

  • Clifton Elementary School (Region 5) – math, science and computer education
  • Evansdale Elementary School – (Region 2) math, science and French
  • Columbia Middle School – (Region 5) math, science and technology
  • Arabia Mountain High School (Region 4) – environment, energy and engineering
  • Columbia High School (Region 5) – math, science and technology

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.

84 Comments

Posted in Chamblee High School, Redistricting