Category Archives: SPLOST

The public meeting breakouts and online survey heavily favored “Option A – Doraville Cluster” (at least before the get out the vote campaign for Option B)
Lakeside HS and Dunwoody HS select “Option B – Split Feeders”.
Lakeside HS and Dunwoody HS are way over crowded. Both schools’ campuses and surrounding infrastructure cannot handle the students they have now. They both also feel strongly about avoiding districting students out of their cluster. To accomplish this, Dunwoody is asking for additional 600 seats at their high school and 450 seats at their middle school. Lakeside HS is asking for an additional 750 seats at their school or in a secondary building off campus. Lakeside HS is committed to being creative in coming up with ideas to figure how to make this feasible.
BTW: Dunwoody cluster talked to the administration about getting an addition to the middle school before agreeing to go with Option B. Did Lakeside Cluster ask for anything else before agreeing to go with Option B?
Randy Faigin David (randyandken@comcast.net) is the Chairperson of the Lakeside Cluster Summit and submitted the following “Thought Paper”:

The Lakeside Cluster Summit was formed in January 2016 as a vehicle for parents, administrators and community members in the Lakeside feeder pattern to come together to address issues of concern to our Lakeside school community.
Lakeside Cluster Summit has held several meetings where the proposed options under the Secondary Schools Facility Planning and Feasibility Study were discussed.
Growth Plan
• Keep the Lakeside Cluster intact by not removing any elementary schools or neighborhoods
• We provisionally support a 750–1000 seat addition at Lakeside High School to accommodate future growth in the Lakeside cluster without changing cluster boundaries. However, if it is not possible to build a 750-1000 seat addition to Lakeside at its current location while also addressing issues such as ingress and egress, parking and traffic patterns, then we do not support the addition.
• If building a 750 to 1000 seat addition proves to be unfeasible, we support using creative and flexible strategies to create the additional high school seats needed within our cluster per our list of Creative Ideas cited below.

For example, combining a smaller-scale addition to Lakeside’s existing building with the creation of an offsite 9th Grade Academy would address overcrowding concerns by opening up additional seats in the existing Lakeside building (the current freshman class is over 700 students). It would also help make better use of existing facilities within our cluster footprint. A 9th Grade Academy also takes into account that our cluster might not always need a super-large high school building. Last but certainly not least, it models an innovative learning solution for our students. 9th Grade Academies have been shown to improve the academic outcomes for students across the board by improving the transition to high school.

• Based on this increased student population, it is essential to utilize the construction process to make Lakeside High School more accessible to buses, cars and walkers (see Creative Ideas section below)
• Ensure that the post–addition Lakeside has all of the resources necessary to operate in accordance with best practices for large high schools even if these resources and best practices are different than those used at other DCSD High Schools
• Lakeside Cluster is committed to working together to address all challenges as a united community (whether related to diversity and inclusion, growth, or anything else).
• Lakeside Cluster Summit looks forward to collaborating and partnering with the District as we work together in this process.
Consensus Principles
• Lakeside celebrates its racial and socio-economic diversity including its Title 1 high school, middle school and several Title 1 elementary schools
• We support working with our neighboring clusters in finding region and district wide solutions to overcrowding and honoring those clusters’ desires to remain intact
• Consider traffic impact and patterns when determining boundaries between clusters. Take into consideration that the impact of crossing certain boundaries may be much easier than other. For example, it is considerably more difficult to cross I85 at North Druid Hills Road than I285 at Henderson Road.
• Transportation studies should be initiated for schools that currently experience gridlock at the beginning and ending of the school
• Teachers should have their own classrooms and not have to float
• Equity and access are important but one size does not fit all—best practices may be different for larger and smaller high schools—embrace those best practices
Creative Ideas – for making a 750-1000 seat addition at Lakeside feasible
• Reconfigure access in and out of Lakeside property
• Reconfigure student and faculty parking lots, bus lanes, carpool lines and consider a parking deck
• Consider additional access points (including walkways) using property behind Lakeside, space at the intersection of Briarlake Road and Briarcliff Road and the intersection of Briarcliff and Oak Grove Road (for example, if development over the marsh at the intersection of Briarlake and Briarcliff Roads is not possible, build an elevated boardwalk style walkway to enable students to efficiently and safely walk to a school entrance while avoiding street and parking lot traffic)
• Pedestrian access through neighborhoods to back side of Lakeside campus
• Consider acquiring additional parcels of land adjacent to Lakeside
• Dedicated traffic assistance at Lakeside at arrival and dismissal times
• Work with DeKalb County to improve roads and intersections at Briarcliff and Oak Grove Roads and Briarcliff and Briarlake Roads and resolve drainage issues
• Coordinate start and end times with Globe Academy and consider staggered start and end times
• Create shuttle sites (area churches and shopping centers) with school buses to transport students from parking and carpool drop off to Lakeside
• Create and enforce non-resident attendance policies
• Research and adopt, with input and shared decision making from our building leadership and Regional Superintendent, best practices for student learning in high schools with 2,400 or more students
Out of the Box Alternatives – for keeping the Lakeside Cluster intact:
• Utilize all existing DCSD properties in the Lakeside Cluster including Heritage School currently being used by Globe Academy
• Sell the old Briarcliff High School site and possibly Adams stadium and use proceeds to support a new Cross Keys High School and to buy land for a stadium in the Doraville/Cross Keys area.
• Create a 9th grade academy at a new property (or existing property in the cluster) such as the Sports Authority space near Northlake Mall
• Acquire property at Northlake Mall to build a new high school
• Reconfigure grades among elementary schools and the middle school, such as a 4-6 school, and a 7-8 or 9 school
The Lakeside Cluster Summit would like our Lakeside school community to have the flexibility to address issues of crowding, equity and logistics together as a community. We would like flexibility to quickly meet changing needs in our cluster and ensure that today’s needs are met even as we are planning for the future. The Lakeside Cluster Summit is working hard to honor and preserve the diversity of our community.

Over the past several weeks, leaders of the MES Advisory Council, PTA, and Foundation met to discuss and provide this unified response to the DeKalb County School District’s Secondary School Facility Planning & Feasibility Study.
Their principles and proposals are less band aid and more fix this for our children and future generations. They favor keeping the magnets where they are, selling off Briarcliff and building community schools along with increasing the size of existing schools as infrastructure permits.
 
 
Guiding Principles
• Celebrate, build into, and replicate success. We should assess what programs and schools are doing well within the district and look to replicate them. We should not implement plans that disrupt that success.
• Cost matters, but planning for our future is critically important. While we need to be cost conscious and work within our budget, we can’t be shortsighted in planning for our future. The chosen option should not only address our current needs but position us for future success.
• Proximity matters. We want our schools to be a vibrant part of community. This is best achieved if the schools are located in the heart of the population they serve.
• Traffic matters. Where possible transportation costs should be reduced for families and the district, negative effects on traffic should be minimized, and safe walking and driving routes to schools should be prioritized.
• Community matters. Elementary and middle school communities should stay together through high school, whenever possible.
• Diversity matters. Keep all of our schools economically and ethnically diverse. We are extremely fortunate to have the diversity we have in the Chamblee Cluster secondary schools (e.g. in 2014, the student population at Chamblee Charter High School was 25% Caucasian, 46% African American, 14% Hispanic, 11% Asian, and 4% Biracial). This should be maintained.
• Educational equally matters. High performing, rigorous learning opportunities should be made available in every school.
• Facilities matter. All new and renovated facilities should support 21st century learning. School expansion should be avoided, if possible, and only be an option when adequate supportive infrastructure (e.g. cafeteria space) is made available to serve the extra students.
• Primary schools matter. Decisions about funding secondary schools should not be done in a vacuum. Considerations for the effects on primary schools should be encompassed into future secondary planning efforts. The current Chamblee Cluster has developed a strong pipeline of resident families who plan on sending their children to DCSD schools from K through 12. The investment these families have made in their neighborhood schools should be supported by the results of this planning study.
Proposals
• Build a new high school in the Sequoyah area that can serve up to 2400 students living in the northeast DeKalb County corridor. This is one of the fastest developing areas in the region and the continued growth potential is considerable. If capacity for 2400 students isn’t projected to be needed in five years, a school with less capacity (e.g. 1800) could be built at this time. However, the school should have an infrastructure that can support future expansion to up to 2400 students.
• Create a Cross Keys campus that includes a new high school that can support up to 2500 students and convert the current Cross Keys High School into a Middle School that can support 1500 students. If capacity for 2500 students in the high school isn’t projected to be needed in five years, a school with less capacity (e.g. 1800) could be built at this time. However, the school should have an infrastructure that can support future expansion to up to 2400 students.
• Sell the Briarcliff land. These funds can support the purchase of additional land at the current Cross Keys site and land for the Sequoyah area high school.
• Build additions at Clarkston High School (300 students) and, if necessary, at Sequoyah Middle School (250 to 500 students) that include additional supportive infrastructure (e.g. sufficient cafeteria space) for the students. Any other school additions should only be considered as a last resort to minimize disruptions and avoid overtaxing each school’s supportive infrastructure.
• Keep the Magnet Program within Chamblee Charter High School and Chamblee Middle School.
• Ensure all new and renovated facilities provide modern learning spaces and accommodations for future growth.
• Community input and involvement are critical and should be strongly sought out during the entire process.
In summary, we support DeKalb County School District creating a blended Option A+B that adheres to the points expressed above. This option is economically feasible (Exhibit 1) and will increase the district’s capacity by 5400-5900 seats, provide us with two new high schools, maintain students’ proximity to their schools, promote continued diversity, and allow for minimal disruption to the existing schools.