Tag Archives: Trailers

Trailers at Cross Keys High School

Posted on August 21, 2017 by | 40 comments


The trailers have been placed at Cross Keys for a renovation project. They are not there due to enrollment/capacity issues.
E-SPLOST V includes approximately $300 million for “New Facilities and Additions” to address capacity needs across the district. The administration proposed large additions to the overcrowded high schools of Chamblee, Dunwoody, and Lakeside, even though these schools are already on postage stamp sized campuses. Cross Keys will receive a new high school.
The administration is pursuing a strategy to equally distribute the immigrant population, clustered around the Buford Corridor, to Chamblee, Dunwoody, Lakeside and Cross Keys. Once Cross keys is rebuilt on its new site and the new high school is built, the administration plans to redistrict from the Chamblee, Dunwoody, and Lakeside feeder schools to Cross Keys to more evenly balance the immigrant population. The Board of Education approved this approach. I was the only opposing vote. With the development that continues to occur in the Perimeter region, I remain convinced that a new Doraville area high school needs to be built rather than shoving more students on small campuses.
In accordance with the E-SPLOST V Project Listing and Sequencing, Phase I includes the conversion of the current Cross Keys High School (CKHS) to a middle school. This conversion is estimated to be completed sometime in 2020 and cost $10 million. A new Cross Keys/Brookhaven High School is expected to be built by 2021 and cost $85 million.
The Role of the City and County Governments
The school district is immune from zoning laws created in the jurisdictions in which it operates. The school district is not immune from all other laws of the jurisdiction, such as building codes and other development requirements. The question of how different governmental entities operating within one jurisdiction with respect to zoning and all other ordinances became settled law, or stare decisis, with the rulings for two court cases.
City of Atlanta and Decatur Enforce Codes
The City of Atlanta and Decatur enforce codes and protect the interests of its citizens.  Just recently, the Decatur School District went to the City of Decatur council to REQUEST PERMISSION to add trailers to one of their schools inside the city limits of Decatur. All school trailers in Decatur must be approved by the city council before installation. Before the City of Decatur council would approve the trailers, they wanted to know:

  • Whether the proposed use is suitable in view of the use and development of adjacent and nearby property.
  • Whether the proposed use adversely affects the existing use or usability of adjacent or nearby property.
  • Whether the proposed use results in a use which will or could cause an excessive or burdensome use of existing streets, transportation facilities, utilities or other public facilities.
  • Whether there is adequate ingress and egress to the subject property, including evaluation of the traffic impact of the proposed use relative to street capacity and safety of public streets and nearby pedestrian uses.
  • Whether there are other existing or changing conditions which, because of their impact on the public health, safety, morality and general welfare of the community, give supporting grounds for either approval or disapproval of the proposed use.

Marshall Orson is the District 2 representative on the Board of Education. His district includes Cross Keys High School.

Marshall Orson

Marshall Orson
DeKalb Schools Board of Education

Addressing the overcrowding issue in the Cross Keys cluster is one of our highest priorities given the failure of previous boards and administrations to do so. Given these circumstances, we will be building a new high school for the cluster (in addition to two new elementary schools and renovations of other schools including the current Cross Keys High School which will become a middle school). We are searching diligently for a suitable property in order to build this school as quickly (and prudently) as possible.
The Administration can address the logistics issues raised [in Rebekah’s comments]. In an urban setting, space is frequently a challenge and other schools face similar issues (e.g. Due to space constraints, many athletes at Druid Hills High School travel to Druid Hills Middle School for practices and/or matches). We are committed to providing comparable opportunities for all students and continue to work to address circumstances where there are obstacles to doing so.
Marshall Orson

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Related Posts

Enforcing Zoning, Building, and Other Ordinances
May 3, 2017 – What authority does a city or county have in enforcing its zoning, building, and other ordinances with respect to temporary and permanent building on school property? This question with respect to zoning and all other ordinances became settled law with the rulings on two court cases.

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DeKalb E-SPLOST V Project Schedule
March 20, 2017 – On Monday the DeKalb Board of Education will vote on E-SPLOST V project scheduling and associated cash flow sequencing including details of the projects, budgets, and anticipated start and finish dates.

40 Comments

Posted in Cross Keys Cluster, DeKalb County School District, Trailers

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Plan For More Trailers in Dunwoody and Chamblee

Posted on May 5, 2017 by | 32 comments

In DeKalb Schools there are almost 4,000 open high school seats across the county. We could redistrict tomorrow and all of our problems with over burdened common spaces and over crowded high schools in Dunwoody and Chamblee would be instantly gone.
However, the school district will be adding 600 – 750 seats at Lakeside High School, Dunwoody High School, and Chamblee Charter High School to balance out the racial diversity and socio-economics of the student populations attending those schools as well as evenly distribute the students from Doraville and Buford Hwy across more affluent schools. I believe there are many reasons why the school district has chosen this path. The main one is they do not want to redistrict because the guidelines for redistricting wouldn’t accomplish the demographic blend they are seeking in North DeKalb.
In the mean time, here is the plan for trailers at the High Schools in Dunwoody and Chamblee.
Chamblee Charter High School (CCHS)
Chamblee Charter HS awaits the addition of 600 more seats expected to be completed on or shortly after the Fall of 2020. Fall 2016 enrollment was 1,624 students. CCHS can expect a Fall 2017 enrollment of about 1,721 students and 4 new classroom trailers. If construction of the seat additions is finished on time, CCHS should max out at 10 trailers by 2020.

Chamblee Charter High School
Year (Fall) Estimated Enrollment Portable Classrooms
2016 1,624 0
2017 1,721 4
2018 1,858 6
2019 2,006 10
2020 2,099 0 (New Additions Completed)

Dunwoody High School (DHS)
In the Fall of 2016, DHS had approx 1,822 students and 4 trailers. 2 modulars were recently added. DHS is expected to have at least 12 portable classrooms before the seat additions are completed. It is undetermined where those trailers will go and if they will ever be inspected by the city.
On Monday the Dunwoody Council will vote on an MOU with the School District for building plan review and inspection of capital and facilities improvements projects within the city boundaries. While the school district and the city bang out the details of the MOU, will our children are going to school in un-inspected trailers?

Dunwoody High School
Year (Fall) Estimated Enrollment Portable Classrooms
2016 1,822 4
2017 1,935 8
2018 1,941 8
2019 1,977 10
2020 1,976 10
2021 2,028 12
2022 2,093 0 (New Additions Completed)
Note: Dunwoody High School, Chamblee Charter High School and Lakeside High School are expected to be at 100% capacity after all SPLOST V projects are completed.

FAQ – Facility Planning & Feasibility Study
Question – Wouldn’t it be best to build the schools a little bit larger to allow for higher than expected attendance levels in the future? Put another way, why build to a utilization of 100% rather than adding additional capacity?
School District Answer – District staff are aware of the uncertainty inherent in any future forecasting. Rather than risk the cost of “overbuilding” by adding much more capacity than is needed, or “underbuilding” by building much less capacity than is needed, the District is recommending adding capacity as the forecast data indicates is needed. These forecasts will be updated annually as we track demographic shifts across the District. Our buildings will be designed so that, if warranted, we can add additional building capacity to accommodate future student capacity needs at each school where possible.

Related Posts

Pros and Cons of adding 600 seats to Dunwoody HS
January 7, 2017 – Moving forward, I’m trying to understand the support for the building addition at Dunwoody High School. The speculation that some Dunwoody residents would be redistricted out of DHS seems to be the only reason for any continued support of the building additions.

Is 600 More Seats At Chamblee Charter HS A Good Idea?
January 17, 2017 – Please help me understand why adding 600 seats to Chamblee Charter High School is good for anybody in that community? I suspect that any support is driven by redistricting.

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?

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Posted in Capital Projects, Chamblee High School, Construction, Dunwoody High School, Lakeside High School, SPLOST

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