One of the first actions of the newly constituted, Governor-appointed board (except for three) was to approve the decision to forgo leasing trailers/modulars/learning cottages and use only trailers owned or being purchased by the school system. Although the newest published list of vendor spends (July, 2013 edition) shows that Williams Scotsman, the company we leased trailers from was paid $796,301.74, we anticipate that they will no longer be paid by DeKalb schools.
However, this has had some very unexpected consequences for a few schools, and possibly more. As we posted two weeks ago, the school system supposedly ‘refreshed’ and remodeled all system-owned trailers. Unfortunately, they forgot to take care of the 16-unit modular outdoor school located at Vanderlyn Elementary. The modulars had been cleaned out by teachers last May, yet nothing had been done about the trailers. The weekend before school started, after being alerted by concerned parents, the school system started the replacement project at Vanderlyn. It continued for two more weeks, disrupting learning throughout the building due to cramming 16 classrooms into an over-capacity building. It looks like the project is complete, but the end result is a ‘village’ of only eight single trailers and a bathroom. This is eight less than Vanderlyn originally had. And the refurbished trailers aren’t quite as roomy or as nice. But it’s done.
Click here to read the post on Vanderlyn. Here is a photo of the scene there.
Now, we have just been sent photos of what appears to be decrepit, moldy, old trailers with shaky wooden steps and no handicap accessibility at Henderson Middle School – another severely over-crowded school awaiting an addition built with SPLOST IV funds. These trailers actually look uninhabitable and would probably be condemned by an inspector who cared. They certainly do not look refreshed or renovated in any way. They don’t even look ADA compliant. Take a look – would you want your child to spend their time in one of these?
They are reminiscent of the mold and decay at Chamblee High School before that building was completely rebuilt. A similar situation occurred at Cross Keys – the old DSW posted a disturbing article about that. Read about it here. Cross Keys has had ‘some’ renovation done, however, their track is still dangerous and cracked and they still have no auditorium like other high schools. Much of their renovation budget went to rebuilding the High School of Technology North, after the school system sold that original site to Georgia Perimeter College and merged the N. Tech High in with Cross Keys.
The point is, decisions still don’t seem to be made based on enrollments and projections and dire need. Decisions still seem to be politically based, as the administration and board somehow still have the idea that the construction money must be evenly divided across districts – regardless of need. This was a concern of SACS, and it’s certainly a concern of ours. We do not agree that some students must suffer in decrepit, over-crowded schools simply because their school is in a district with more needs than others, yet is allocated relatively the same amount of attention. SPLOST IV projects should have been decided and scheduled according to the enrollment demands (current and future) and need based on conditions.
dekalb school watch two 
The point is, decisions still don’t seem to be made based on enrollments and projections and dire need. Decisions still seem to be politically based, as the administration and board somehow still have the idea that the construction money must be evenly divided across districts – regardless of need. This was a concern of SACS…
YA THINK?
I thought, in the end, Vanderlyn ended up with double wides again, modulars, and they have empty classrooms in the building because the parents successfully advocated for enough trailers to house entire grades. They also got fencing and landscaping per my friend and it was provided by the system and not parents.
The situation with trailers, everywhere else, is terrible. The idea is to save money, but at what cost.
Thurmond wants to eliminate trailers, but I am not sure he is willing to do the heavy lifting that redistricting will require. Henderson Middle is slated to get an addition but I am not sure that will suffice.
As you go South in the County our middle and high schools have ample room and so some redistricting clearly needs to occur.
This is a fairly good source for data…
http://www.dekalb.k12.ga.us/planning
I would agree totally with Concernedmom that something need to be done regarding redistricting of schools and the county doing it best to do away with trailers.
I have taught in a single wide trailer and it absolutely is a poor learning environment for students. However, the biggest concern I have is regards to safety. I have seen bullet holes through one side of the trailer and through the other side of the trailer. The bullet holes went through desks, bookshelves and out the other side.
This is not the type of environment we should be providing our children to learn. Hard decisions need to be made and this problem in DeKalb needs to be addressed. Thurman needs to address the problem head on and show up he needs to remain our school superintendent. I am assuming he would like to remain DeKalb County’s School Superintendent.
I don’t know who wrote the article, but Chamblee High isn’t done. They won’t be moving into the new building until January. They’re still using the trailers.
I taught for a few months at HMS in the fall of 2010 before moving to Colorado. Terese Allen, the wonderful principal, did the best she could under such ramshackle conditions, but my students often got their chair legs caught in the holes that were in various spots around the inside perimeter. Not to mention the inside treks thru the mud and elements to get to the inside bathrooms. My fellow Learning Cottage peers never let it affect their teaching though, cause that’s how DCSS teachers roll. They make the best of a negative environment for the sake of their students. No palace needed.
After the incident at McNair, I’m hard-pressed to hear any superintendent justify the use of trailers over redistricting. How safe are those children??
Yes, but this isn’t “any superintendent.”
Sorry Vanderlyn families. What you are experiencing happens to children all over North Dekalb. These pictures could have been taken at any number of schools. Trailers were cleaned up and painted at some schools. I guess they didn’t get finished. Ella and Lisa Lee are right. Trailers are poor classrooms. They are hard to arrange so that everyone can see and hear.
Uh, it happens all over the whole of DeKalb when trailers are required. Some years ago when the children of S. DeKalb were packed like so many sardines on campuses (DeKalbite2 may a reference to Fairington Elem. recently), the quality of the trailers was just as bad, and parent complaints soared. It shouldn’t be a classroom solution anywhere.
There are four trailers still sitting in the back parking lot at the old DSA on n. Druid. Bet they are in fine shape. If we are goung to use them, refurbish them, then sell them. Speaking of shape, the parking lot is miserable if you are going to Adams stadium. Watch for the crater as you pull in. I know, stadium parking lot is no. 4764 on a list of 5000 things that need to be fixed in this system.
Actually, stadiums are supposedly high on the list for improvements in SPLOST IV.
@dekalbschoolwatch,
The stadiums are getting new lights and artificial turf for about a million dollars each. http://www.dekalb.k12.ga.us/splost-iv/referendum/detail/item/02
Also, trailers do not have to be ADA compliant, ramps. They just need a certificate of occupancy, CO. Each has a working phone, two exits, and some HVAC system. Most have interactive white boards.
I looked at trailer number 3 at Tucker High this week. Trailer 3 has new paint on rotten trim. It’s roof leaks and whenever it rains class is relocated to the cafeteria.
midvaledad says:Each has a working phone, two exits, and some HVAC system. Most have interactive white boards.
Our modular was also taken away this summer, leaving us with a few trailers. I know the trailers at our school do not have a phone, computer and definitely no interactive white board. The modular did allow the teachers to have a computer, but that was it. We were told that the trailers weren’t secure enough to house those items- apparently secure enough to house students and staff, though.
I think the reason Vanderlyn only got 8 trailers was because that is all they needed… there are only 8 classes without classrooms right now. In previous years they had more classrooms than they needed and entire classrooms were devoted to PTA office space. It’s hard to fault DCSS for this… I don’t think in these lean budget times DCSS should be paying to heat/cool/refurbish trailers just so PTAs can have entire classrooms inside the building… at most schools PTAs make do with a closet or a desk inside an office somewhere…
“Each has a working phone, two exits, and some HVAC system. Most have interactive white boards.”
Midvale Dad, I’d like to know where you got your information about interactive white boards being installed in trailers. These trailers are really just metal boxes with doors and sometimes a window. They lock, but are easily broken into. Cell phones don’t work inside them. If you don’t have a land line, you must go outside to make a call on your cell phone.
Believing that the cafeteria is a good place for an alternate classroom is just stupid on the part of administration. These principals should be fighting for the kids not against them. Cant fight city hall, find another job. And don’t reply how principals have so much stress and are between a rock and a hard place. This is their job.
On another note, if this is what the kids see/experience from the adults, no wonder there is a respect issue or discipline problem. A school system that does not put kids FIRST ultimately telegraphs to the kids they are not the most important part of the process.
I guess this goes back to what those Tucker admin types were trying to say in the Textbook thread. Negativity breeds a negative response. Let’s see here…incompetent administrators, educrats and board members means children with a lack of respect for adults, confused and frustrated parents and unappreciated and underpaid teachers. Yep.
But hey, let’s all sing a round of onward social justice and be positive!
I have been in trailers at 4 different schools. My understanding is a phone was required for a CO because the teachers need to be able to call 911. I may be wrong. If anyone will post specific schools that currently have trailers without phones, I will talk to Dan Drake about them.
Midvale Dad, the need to call 911 is definitely not being considered in trailers. We have been given instructions on more than one occasion that the only staff member in the school who can call 911 is the principal.
Midvale Dad
You have seen smart boards in the trailers — or just phones?
My son’s trailers had smart boards when Midvale had trailers. At other schools the trailers I have been in which are used for general education & ESOL also had smart boards. The trailers used for music and art (at other schools) did not have smart boards even though they could use them as well as any other teacher. Midvale doesn’t have trailers this year. Every trailer I have been in had a phone.
Where are there trailers without phones? Please share the school and the trailer number and I will take it to administration. Complaining on this blog will not change anything. Working with administration (sometimes, occasionally) can get things done.
I think even the most casual observer can see these trailers are no substitute for classrooms. As parents, we should insist that these trailers be used only as interim while construction is completed. Trailers should not be dumped on our schools without an approved plan for relieving the school’s overcrowding. Of course having a plan of any type of longevity is almost impossible in DeKalb county as the upper levels of administration seem to change on a monthly basis.
The situation at the Henderson Middle School cannot be overstated. What Principal Allen and the teachers there have had to work with is a crime. The school was built for high schoolers and never retrofitted for middle schoolers, much less the dramatic increase in population it has experienced. If the county made a modest investment in the physical plant, the parental, teacher and administrative support could make this school a shining star of the county.
Trailers will never be for temporary use only as long as SPLOST continues to be distributed the way it currently is (by voting district, rather than by growth). Even if one voting district experiences 100% of the growth, they still only get their pro rata share of the SPLOST dollars… which aren’t enough to build classrooms for everyone. This is what is happening in the Dunwoody cluster. Trailers will be a reality for at least another 10 years. There is not even a PLAN to add classrooms to any of the schools in the cluster other than Austin. That will help, but will still not provide even close to the amount of elementary seats needed in the cluster. This is a political issue that can never be solved unless and until the school system is broken into smaller units. Hence why Dunwoody wants its own system.
I know from volunteering in the attendance office that not all trailers at Henderson Middle School have working phones. Fortunately, most teachers have cell phones, but this is still a security issue. And, obviously a trailer is not as secure as a classroom inside a school building when talking about school gun violence.
At our elementary schools the teachers use walkie talkies rather than phones. Is this not how it is at all DCSS schools?
I agree about the security. Our elementary school (as well as the middle school next door) is about 100 yards away from a mental hospital. Sometimes people get out from there and wander off, etc. Sometimes you will see their photos on the news — “police are searching for ….” The trailers are the part of the campus that are the closest to this facility. It just makes me very nervous. They are locked, but with children going back and forth, it is very concerning. It is high time that Dekalb did something about addressing the chronic overcrowding.
Aren’t we forgetting the “other” way to manage over-crowding? Oh wait, I forgot the U.S. Congress and the States passed the 28th amendment guaranteeing all homeowners the right to never be re-districted. Then there’s the 29th amendment that assures that I can get my kid into another school out of my attendance area if I don’t like my local demo. Never mind! We are suffering not only the fruits of DCSD’s failures but our own.
We have over 1,000 kids at Woodward ES this year. Montclair ES the same. Dresden ES nearly the same. Cary Reynolds nearly the same. Trailers, yes, we are blessed to have trailers and grateful. At least some of them are air conditioned unlike some of the classrooms in recent weeks. While I feel for every parent and child at the individual schools mentioned by others above, I have to quickly add, “It could be worse.”
Everything ill that is noted by the “North” or by the “South” is more widespread in our CK cluster. Forget “Black,’ forget “White.” What about these “Gray Children” of DeKalb? Locked out and marginalized even by the marginalized. The CK renovation was half-done and the promises to finish have stopped echoing long ago into the silence of SPLOST IV. Then, there’s the thousands of children in our ESes. Shameful, I tell you, shameful what we are doing to these kids.
And what they accomplish in spite of all this – God bless them all!
Here’s the primary entrance (and some nice trailers) for pedestrians, aka kids, at Woodward ES during a recent rain: http://youtu.be/1a5GyOFt49A … ridiculous. When you see the dumpster and loading dock area, please note that when the delivery trucks are early or the trash pick-up is late, they are playing frogger with our kids.
The main issue causing the delay at Vanderlyn was the vendor who supplied the leased modulars fell way behind schedule (maybe deliberately – maybe not) in removing their units so that the replacement units could be moved in. They did the same at Redan HS. Of course, the wettest summer in recent memory sure didn’t help matters by making the ground so soggy that it was difficult to get the tractor trailers in and out with the mobiles and modulars.
The school system had no control over the weather, folks.
Interesting Insider. But probably just an ‘after the fact’ excuse. Plain and simple, they forgot. Hopefully accidentally…
@Kim, yes redistrict please… but how does that help in the north end of the county? I am not familiar with the schools you are describing, but in the Dunwoody cluster (which includes Hightower ES in Doraville)… redistricting won’t help. There simply aren’t enough elementary seats in the cluster. So send them where? South to Montgomery Elementary? They are already in trailers down there! I doubt they want Dunwoody/Doraville kids adding to their troubles. Huntley Hills? They don’t have seats either. We are talking about needing hundreds of seats up here. They may have those in South Dekalb somewhere but are you seriously suggesting busing little kids all the way down there? Doesn’t it make more sense just to spend the SPLOST dollars where they are needed rather than where it is more politically expedient?
The only way I see redistricting working to solve this issue (the Dunwoody one) is if they moved Kittredge out of Nancy Creek, and re-opened that as an ES to relieve overcrowding in the Dunwoody and Chamblee clusters. I wish they would do that. I know a lot of other people in Dunwoody would hate that idea bc a lot of Dunwoodians (Including the ever-present Dunwoody Mom) hate the idea of Dunwoody kids attending school outside the city limits) but I say do it. Doraville kids attend school outside their city limits every day (PCMS and DHS)… our kids are no better and no worse than anyone else’s. It won’t kill anyone to travel the 1/4 mile south of 285 to Nancy Creek. That school is actually closer to my house than some of the ones in the City of Dunwoody (say, Austin).
Now, I’m not suggesting that the overcrowding you are describing isn’t important too. It all is. It’s just that I can only speak to/make suggestions as to the areas I am familiar with…
AParent: This is exactly why we opposed SPLOST IV. The plan included an even distribution across the county to garner votes. In the end, the vaguely described ‘plan’ left hundreds of students in Dunwoody and the Lakeside clusters with life in trailers for decades to come.
You see? It’s political. Pure politics. And Contracts and Jobs. Period.
Here are a few ideas though — many of you won’t like it!
Drop the Chamblee magnet program. Make it an area attendance high school only. Send all Cross Keys students to Chamblee and make Cross Keys a large middle school (works for this as it has no auditorium!) Make Sequoyah a very large elementary school – it could house the new 900 seat plan – or even more! Quit with the specialty, magnet, theme, science, extra $$$ on charters (beyond our legal responsibility). Merge the DSA program in with an under-enrolled high school. Take the Kittredge and Wadsworth models and make that happen in EVERY school – offer ‘gifted’ programs in schools that mean something. Offer special education support that means something so that people don’t have or want to seek private schools or charters. CUT Pre-K (they don’t generate FTE earnings and cost us more than we take in – including the seats they use up in schools – turn the lottery-funded program over to private operators or convert empty, unused schools into pre-K academies) CUT all unnecessary transportation – if this requires making ARABIA have an attendance zone, then do it – it’s what was originally promised anyway!
These are not that tough. Rip off the band-aid and start the healing! But some group will fight every action to do so in every neighborhood. They intimidate the staff and nothing gets done. These high-level staff people are complacent and fat (in the wallet). Ramona Tyson presided over the biggest drop in learning in the history of DeKalb schools – and she was never called out for it – in fact, she earned $300,000 last year! These ‘leaders’ have no motivation to do the right thing to properly educate ALL students in DeKalb — even if it means diluting something ‘extra’ someone else is now getting.
AParent: You pretty much have it – you’re describing a component of the Management America “Centralized Plan” that was DOA due to entrenched special interests of the existing mess in Region 1. That series of proposals was an interim that would have set the table for capital investments in new ESes in Region 1 in addition to the new CCHS. But, rather than move forward on a strategic decision with some short-term blow-back, DCSS (now DCSD) rolled over once again. The mantra from the constituents was, “You’ve screwed up everything. Don’t mess up the one thing in this County that is going well.”
I’ve said for years now that the most fundamental fiscal problem we have is our attachment to “neighborhood scale” schools. I used to be indirect about my view of this but I have aged and see this attachment as a euphemism for wanting to limit the exposure of our children to children not to our liking. I refer readers to the blood-boiling and hateful PTA communiqué from Ashford Park ES (http://dekalbschoolwatch.blogspot.com/2011/01/fear-and-loathing-not-just-in-druid.html) when the unthinkable re-districting was contemplated under the “centralized plan.”
I started as a Cross Key “patriot” who wanted CK kids to get equal amenities at their own school. During the Mgt America engagement, I asked one of the thoughtful students at CK what they thought about the possibility of CK consolidating with a re-built Chamblee (this was surely the hidden agenda of the unwritten “Phase II” of the Centralized Plan that was killed at birth). I was expecting a “Green and Gold Forever” response of heck no but was surprised that the student was thrilled. “You mean my younger sister would have access to the same facilities as Chamblee HS kids? That’d be awesome!”
Since that evening, I have realized that the kids better understand our situation and how uncomplicated it is. We adults have a way to go ….
Well said as usual, Kim.
It does make one wonder — when we’re building a $50+ million new high school that is to serve as a charter/magnet pulling from around the county, fully equipped with state of the art sports fields and a performance auditorium, why then, is it acceptable to assign certain area resident students to an inferior building just up the road – complete with a dangerous, ruddy track, no sports facilities and no auditorium of any kind?
Let’s see – the only thing that’s different about Cross Keys is the skin tone and heritage of many of its students. Back in the day, African-Americans used to call this discrimination…
@Kim I like that plan, although it doesn’t really address the issues in the Dunwoody cluster, unless you are saying that Nancy Creek, once rid of the Kittredge students, would be absorbed into the Dunwoody cluster. The only problem with that is that while Nancy Creek could probably absorb all of the overflow Dunwoody elementary students, there would surely be an outcry from the families in the surrounding neighborhood that they would want their kids to go to Nancy Creek too (“but our kids could walk there!” — not that I’d blame them, mind you) which would then result in (more) overcrowding at PCMS and (new) overcrowding at DHS (unless some sort of split feeder system was put into place, which is never really a crowd pleaser).
^oops I meant to address above comment to dekalbschoolwatch @2:29
@dekalbschoolwatch @8:43: I think you’re going overboard on that one. Up until about 12 months ago, Chamblee HS was in just as bad if not worse shape than Cross Keys. As in, a seriously nasty school with rats running around in plain view, mold visible on the walls and ceilings and just a really really gross environment. I went and toured that school about four years ago because I considered sending one of my children there (as part of the magnet) and just could not get past the horrible facility. I have also visited Cross Keys about two years ago (prompted, actually, by the stories on the old blog about how horrible the facility was), and honestly, I felt it was not as bad as Chamblee. Maybe that’s just me. Not saying that Cross Keys was a palace, and yes, there are things that need fixing I am sure (just like there are at the aging Dunwoody cluster schools) but it felt safe, the kids seemed happy and welcoming, I didn’t see any wildlife running around in the building like I did at Chamblee. I can say I would have been happy to send my child there. (Funnily enough, when I shared this view on the blog, I was accused of being a Dekalb central office employee LOL. A lot of time on this blog it seems like no one wants to hear anything other than what they already believe…)
But back to your comment at 8:43am, it is true that DCSS is addressing Chamblee first. But they can’t do them all at the same time. Call that mismanagement and incompetence – yes definitely, because they honestly never should have let these assets deteriorate to the extent that they have. But I don’t think it’s fair to call it racism. After all, they renovated Dunwoody HS before either one of Chamblee or CK and we all know that Dunwoody HS, while very diverse, is not exactly majority African American.
@AParent: I’m aware that Chamblee was a disaster before the reno. I was a big complainer about that as well. However, the truth is, Cross Keys was #2 on the SPLOST III list of priorities and was bumped all the way to the bottom. Most of the reno dollars finally spent on CK actually were used to move the High School of Technology North in with Cross Keys. I believe that was almost $10 million of their total budget. And still, the outdoor track is unusable. There is no auditorium. No sports equipment (except that which was donated to them by a private school). CK does not compare to other high schools in DeKalb, even if you take into account the latest ‘renovations’. I am pointing out the irony of spending $53 million on one school and only about $16 million on the other – then forcing some students to attend the second by virtue of address. But hey! Here’s an idea — what if every kid at Cross Keys applied for a seat at Chamblee Charter?!! Think they’d all get in?
And yes, I really do think it’s discrimination. Dunwoody is considered “white”. White people still have a few seats at the table. Cross Keys is home to a lot of Latinos and other south American, etc immigrants. In fact, Hispanics account for more students in DeKalb (11%) than whites (10%) yet have virtually NO seat at any table anywhere. Evidenced by the way that Atkinson was able to remove interpreters from the budget completely. (Which has since been partially reversed, as it’s illegal.)
Yes but Chamblee had no auditorium either. And neither did Dunwoody until the reno. Yes, they all need to be renovated! I do not disagree with that at all. But they have to do them in some kind of order and they can’t do them all at once. All I am saying is that if it was all primarily motivated by race, they wouldn’t have chosen Dunwoody to be first. You are right that Dunwoody is perceived to be a “white” school (although in fact less than half of students there are white — see http://nces.ed.gov/ccd/schoolsearch/school_detail.asp?Search=1&County=Dekalb%20County&State=13&SchoolPageNum=4&ID=130174000690 for the racial breakdown). That is why I am saying I think the ordering of the construction is NOT racist (or at least, not solely based on race) because if it was, the African-American leadership at DCSS would have started with a school with primarily African-American students such as Chamblee. DCSS does lots of stuff wrong, but I don’t think we should paint them a such a broad brush so easily… in this case, I think there may have been other, legitimate factors at work in terms of how the renos are being ordered.
Now in terms of why they are spending so much on Chamblee, I guess it is because they had let it get so bad that it had to be a tear-down. Which is odd because it was roughly the same age as Dunwoody, which was able to be saved and added onto. Also, Chamblee has the natatorium. Which I personally think they should not have included in the rebuilt school because I think indoor pools are a “nice-to-have” in this economic environment, particularly when other schools are going without the basics.
And, yes, they all need to be renovated, and yes, all the schools need more county-provided resources. (The schools in the Dunwoody cluster that have sports equipment have them because the parents or other groups are providing them. It’s not coming from the county.) That, however, is due to mismanagement and incompetence rather than racism (otherwise, why would “white” Dunwoody have been in better shape than majority African American Chamblee?) None of the schools should have been permitted to deteriorate in this way, and more maintenance should have been done along the way, rather than wasting money on things like books by Ralph Simpson, stupid programs, administrative buildings, and needless administrative positions. But I just think that incompetence and stupidity can be (and at least in this case, was) color blind.
Sorry. I still disagree. First, the whole premise of SPLOST III was to build auditoriums and career tech centers in all high schools (akin to the gyms we built in elementary schools with SPLOST I). So ‘all’ would be the operative word. They didn’t promote it as ‘all except Cross Keys”… Cross Keys was squeezed from 2nd to last on that SPLOST III list of priorities. Then, they ‘said’ they ran out of money. Later, they miraculously ‘found’ money! And promptly bypassed Cross Keys list of needs, moving on to new projects. http://dekalbschoolwatch.blogspot.com/2011/02/open-letter-to-board-members-re-splost.html
This mostly Hispanic school has been mostly virtually ignored. And when there was outcry, they got the most minimal of attention, most of which actually went for the move of the High School of Technology North.
http://dekalbschoolwatch.blogspot.com/2009/08/splost-spending-for-high-schools-is.html
http://dekalbschoolwatch.blogspot.com/2009/07/cross-keys-high-school-is-decrepit.html
Oh, and for fun, read one of my all time favorite posts – by Kim –
http://dekalbschoolwatch.blogspot.com/2011/06/theres-hole-in-my-bucket-dear-liza.html
Even the local Hispanic newspaper has reported on discrimination in the schools –
http://dekalbschoolwatch.blogspot.com/2009/09/school-of-discord.html
+++
For a comparison, read up on the discrimination lawsuit filed by blacks in DeKalb in the 1969 that put us under a 25+ year federal judge’s supervision… it will ring bells, except the players have changed seats.
The actual decision can be read here: https://bulk.resource.org/courts.gov/c/US/503/503.US.467.89-1290.html
A DCSS overview is found here: http://oldwww.dekalb.k12.ga.us/about/history.html
Even the White House issued a report saying that educating Latinos should be a priority – (I interpret that to mean ‘educate equally’ in ‘equal facilities’ with an ‘equal’ set of supplies, programs, materials, teachers and building amenities.)
http://dekalbschoolwatch.blogspot.com/2011/03/are-we-properly-educating-latinos-in.html
The right solution, for the Brookhaven and Chamblee area, would have been to build one large high school. How many people are aware that most students at Chamblee high school don’t live in the attendance zone? It may have finally reached 50% being Chamblee residents but just barely. Before jumps on me that the elementary schools around, that is true but they are not very large and Montgomery elementary students seem to be heading private ESP if they don’t get into Kittridge.
@Dekalbschoolwatch @12:01: my understanding is that CK did get a career tech center, and a very nice one at that. I don’t know why they didn’t get an auditorium. Obviously they should, and hopefully still they will.
In terms of “equal” facilities, materials, etc — yes of course that is how it *should* be but that is a pipe dream in Dekalb! Have you been to places like Arabia Mtn? I have, and there is nothing equal about any of it.
@concernedmom: I completely agree. I am not sure why this was not done. I am guessing it was because those decisions were made in the Crawford Lewis era when the last thing on the minds of powers that be was how to do things most efficiently?