Monthly Archives: November 2016

Dear Board Members:
We are writing to ensure fair and accurate representation for the Chesnut and Kingsley communities, whose desire to remain at local, walkable secondary schools was expressed in the Peachtree Charter Middle School (PCMS) and Dunwoody High School (DHS) council letters, which advocated for a 2017-2022 E-SPLOST V project plan that funds PCMS and DHS building additions.
In addition to the district’s efforts to collect community feedback in its multiple community meetings and online survey as part of the Secondary School Facility Planning and Feasibility Study, Kingsley and Chesnut community members have participated in the following forums:
• Aug. 30 – Representatives from every school in the Dunwoody cluster except Hightower (invited, but could not attend) met and formed consensus to keep cluster intact;
• Sept. 8 and Sept. 14 – Kingsley PTO held informational meetings for its families;
• Sept. 9 and Sept. 13 – Chesnut PTC sent informational letter to parents and discussed at PTC meeting;
• Sept. 13 – Kingsley and Chesnut families attended DHS council meeting where we voiced our support for an amended Option B with buildout to PCMS and DHS.
As a result, the DHS and PCMS letters to the county and the feasibility study’s recommendations all reflect the input we gathered from the Kingsley and Chesnut school communities: allow our students to remain Dunwoody cluster students by growing the capacity at the middle and high schools, rather than rezoning portions of our socioeconomically diverse neighborhoods out of the Dunwoody cluster.
However, now, due to recent commentary that has been circulating in online neighborhood forums, on our Board of Education Region 1 Representative’s blog (http://factchecker.stanjester.com), and in the October 19, 2016 Dunwoody Crier article, “Opposition Develops to DHS, PCMS Additions,” we are concerned that our views will not be represented in the December BOE vote. Our board representative has in fact taken a position contrary to that given by the DHS and PCMS councils, as he stated in the aforementioned Dunwoody Crier article:

“We can’t add 600 seats to the high school every 5 to 10 years; it’s not scalable. And there’s really been no coordination with the city of Dunwoody or other DeKalb cities in regards to the impact on traffic and stormwater. Given these cities and the county must permit and allow these additions, it seems odd that the school district wouldn’t be working with cities and the county in the development stage.” – Stan Jester, Region 1 BOE Representative

By promoting the misconception that 600 students will be added to the high school, Mr. Jester — who surely knows that in fact the plan allows for an enrollment of 267 net new students by 2022 (as DHS’ current enrollment already stands at 321 over capacity) — can only be attempting to incite opposition to the DHS addition.
We look forward to collaborating with our city and county to develop solutions to the issues of traffic and parking at DHS. With community bodies, like Saint Luke’s Church, entering into partnerships with DHS to provide safe and accessible parking for our students, it is evident that there are resolutions for these concerns that will positively benefit neighbors surrounding the school as well as DHS students and families. Furthermore, we believe that our neighbors throughout Dunwoody would certainly not like to see these concerns supersede a socioeconomically diverse Dunwoody cluster that allows families who sought residency within the cluster to remain within the cluster. We thank you in advance for considering our views when you vote on the Facility Master Plan in your December 2016 meeting.
Thank you for your consideration,
Chesnut Elementary Parent Teacher Council
Contact: Terri Young, Chair
chair@chesnutelementary.com
Kingsley Elementary Parent Teacher Organization
Contact: Carrie Willard
ciwillard@yahoo.com