Monthly Archives: January 2018

Lakeside HS Council Not A Fan of the Building Additions

To balance out the racial diversity and socio-economics of the student populations attending Lakeside HS as well as evenly distribute the students from the lengthy Buford Hwy Corridor, the E-SPLOST V Project List includes a 750-seat, 38-classroom, two-story addition to Lakeside High School (LHS).
No consideration appears to be given to the students and taxpaying communities along the Briarcliff Corridor regarding the impact on their educational experience (cramped common spaces and lack of facilities, etc.) or quality of life (traffic, flooding, etc.). There is also possibly a Title IX claim given the lack of adequate sport facilities for girls.
If common spaces are not addressed, LHS will end up with more seats but little in the way of common space improvements for the students they already have, let alone the additional seats. The original conceptual plans include

  • Kitchen extension (1,546 sq/ft)
  • Cafeteria extension (2,025 sq/ft)
  • New media center addition (4,391 sq/ft)
  • 3 story employee parking garage
  • 138 additional student outdoor parking

It is important to point out that the improvements listed above are the bare minimum requirements necessary to get state approval for the addition. Many school districts go beyond the minimum requirements when building facilities for the students in their communities. That information is forthcoming in upcoming posts.
The LHS building additions will not include any renovations or additions to existing media rooms, art rooms, hallways, gymnasium, locker rooms, fields (not including softball field relocation), or any other core spaces or surrounding infrastructure.


Anybody that has driven on Briarcliff Rd when it’s raining is well aware of the watershed issues in the area. LHS is built on the edge of a flood plain. As a matter of fact, the conceptual designs relocate the softball field right on top of a stream in the middle of said floodplain.


Lakeside School Council Concerns with LHS Expansion Plans
The Lakeside HS Council is voicing serious concerns about the planned expansion. They have noticed the same things I have noticed in Chamblee and Dunwoody cluster, that support for these expansions is solely based on the fear of redistricting.
Mike San Fratello, LHS council chair, sent the following open letter this month to the DeKalb Schools administration and Board of Education.

From: Lakeside Highschool Council
Subject: Lakeside School Council Concerns with LHS Expansion Plans

Dear Dr. Green, Dr. Johnson, and members of the Board of Education.
During our November LHS School Council meeting, we had members of the Lakeside community come to voice serious concerns about the planned expansion to Lakeside High School. During our December meeting, we finalized our position on how we can properly represent the state of community consensus, and key concerns regarding the concerns about how education will be affected by these plans.
We all know efforts were made to get community input regarding prospective plans to address the growing student population. It’s clear that neighborhoods that feared being redistricted out of the Lakeside Cluster were most vocal and active in providing feedback. Many, if not most neighborhoods in the community seem to have very little understanding of current plans. At a minimum, this means we represent a community with conflicting interests and desires.
The position of the Lakeside School Council is as follows:
The road infrastructure surrounding the school cannot support additional traffic.
• With the current enrollment of over 2,200 students, we have actually been conducting a feasibility study of traffic issues already.
• As roads cannot be expanded around the school, it is clear that traffic congestion has already reached a critical point.
• The expansion plans will only exacerbate current conditions, increasing concerns with public safety and the ability of emergency vehicles to respond in a timely manner.
• School buses routinely arrive late, delivering students past the beginning of class/home room. This also means that these buses will be late for middle school pickup, thus affecting student arrival times at Henderson Middle and other schools.
• The key question is not about adding 300 more students to Lakeside’s current enrollment, but what an optimal number of students is for this location given the property size and road infrastructure. Given the experience during the 2017/18 school year so far, it would seem that number is LESS than 2,200, not more.
Questions exist about how additional hard space resulting from construction will affect the watershed management in the area.
• Already, flooding from rain at the corner of Briarcliff and Briarlake Roads happens often when it rains, further affecting traffic congestion.
• Either the county or the Army Corps of Engineers needs to review this issue to assess the impact water runoff around the school.
There appears to be a lack of a strategic plan to address enrollment requirements over a period of longer than the next few years. A worst case scenario means that the Lakeside community will be in the same position it is now, once the proposed expansion is completed.
Last, all decisions about moving forward with the expansion plans must be made in the context of how they will deliver the highest quality education experience possible to each and every student.
• We understand efforts were made to get community feedback regarding options the board was considering. It’s clear our community has conflicting views.
• Even if the entire community was in support of expanding LHS per existing plans, we would still need to look to the education experts to determine what the optimal course of action is.
• Our deepest concern is that the current plan is not the best approach to deliver the best educational experience possible.
Thank you for your attention in this matter.
Mike San Fratello
Chairman, Lakeside High School School Council

Related Posts

Adding Classrooms is Only Part of the Soluion
November 8, 2017 – Angela Maki is an involved member of the community with children attending the Lakeside cluster. On Monday she relayed to the board of education that classrooms alone are an inadequate solution to overcrowding. She wants to know what the school district is going to do about expanding PE facilities, locker rooms and office space, etc …

Concerns about Lakeside HS Expansion
November 4, 2017 – Various residents and civic associations have caught wind of the 750 seat expansion project and are doing the research the school district should have done in the first place. After doing some of their own research, they wrote a letter to county and school leadership voicing their concerns.

DeKalb Commissioners Not A Fan of the
E-SPLOST High School Building Additions

February 15, 2017 – DeKalb County Commissioners are unanimously asking the DeKalb County School District to build a new high school in Doraville and not add a bunch of classrooms to Lakeside, Dunwoody, and Chamblee Charter High Schools.

750 More Seats at Lakeside HS? Why?
January 30, 2017 – Lakeside High School is currently cramming 2,184 students into a building with a capacity of 1,756 students. Only one other school in North DeKalb scored a below average 2016 School Climate Star Rating. How will adding 750 seats to Lakeside High School improve their School Climate Star Rating and academic achievement?

Who’s Getting Redistricted
Out of Lakeside HS

November 16, 2016 – The school district intends to redistrict 250 students currently attending Lakeside HS to the new Brookhaven High School cluster. Oak Grove, Hawthorne and Sagamore make the list.

Lakeside High School – 750 Seat Addition
November 2, 2016 – The recommendation to construct a 750-seat, 38-classroom, two-story addition to Lakeside High School. The project will also include…

DeKalb Schools Make Up Days

The DeKalb County School District (DCSD) will make up two of its three inclement weather days on Feb. 16 and March 9. A survey will be presented for options on making up the other two days.

DCSD closed schools for four days this month due to inclement weather – Jan. 8 as well as Jan. 17-19.
In considering its options to recover that lost instructional time, DCSD has committed to keep the current President’s Day, Spring Break, and last day of school as scheduled.
The survey will be administered sometime in the future.
Potential make up day options could include a virtual learning day, the addition of a learning period to the regular school day, among others. DCSD administration wants to remain flexible in case more inclement weather days are needed in the future.


Atlanta Public Schools will add 30 minutes to school day to make up lost time
Atlanta Public Schools will add 30 minutes to school day to make up lost time
APS gathered feedback from parents, principals, students, staff, and the community and issued a survey on the topic, outlining six options for making up the missed days. The most popular option was to extend the school day by 30 minutes.
APS surveyed principals separately and nearly half of them (49%) preferred a 30 minute extension.
Gwinnett County Public Schools’ use of three digital learning days has saved them from using makeup days from the recent snow and ice.
However, the three days missed in September due to Hurricane Irma will have to be made-up using built-in days.
The three makeup days — Feb. 23, March 9 and March 23 will now be changed from student holidays to regular school days. This will put the county back on track to its required 180 days of instruction.
According to Gwinnett County Public Schools Director of Community Relations Bernard Watson, Feb. 9 will remain as a student/teacher holiday and Feb. 19 will still be a student holiday/staff development day.
Clayton County is asking for feedback from parents, teachers and the community about how to make up three instructional days. Options include classes on days originally scheduled as breaks, an hour added on five school days, or school on three Saturdays.
Fulton County will hold classes Feb. 16, originally set as a day off, and had not announced a decision about other makeup days. The district said it was looking into at-home learning options to make up instructional time lost.
Cobb County had not talked about makeup days, a spokesman said earlier, because since its school days are longer than the minimum length of time required, “We’ve got plenty of seat time built in.”
Cherokee County will require children to attend school Feb. 21, 22 and 23 – days previously designated for February Break – to make up three of the four school days missed in January because of weather, officials announced.


The Kittredge Magnet School Principal’s Advisory Council met on January 22, 2018. During the meeting we discussed the impact inclement weather school closures have had on learning objectives. As a result of that discussion, the Kittredge Magnet School Principal’s Advisory Committee would like to request the following:
• all days of lost instructional time be made up. While this may not be a requirement as a State of Emergency was declared, the Principal’s Advisory Council believes that making up the lost instructional time is necessary to allow faculty and students to meet their academic objectives for the semester.
• the lost instructional time is made up via full instructional days and/or digital learning activities to be completed at home. The prior DCSD strategy of extending the school day by 20 minutes was disruptive for faculty, students, and families and provided minimal academic benefit.
• postpone Georgia Milestone testing for one week. This will provide additional time to allow teachers and students to prepare fully.
• prioritize the development of a digital learning framework and plan. This will provide the opportunity for staff to plan ahead for meaningful instruction to continue despite inclement weather events that may result in school closures.
We appreciate your consideration of our suggestions and look forward to collaborating with you to maximize student outcomes for the remainder of the school year.
Sincerely,
Hilary Phillips, Chair
Kittredge Magnet School Principal’s Advisory Council