Approval of Annexation a Done Deal? A First Hand Account…
Decatur Metro | January 16, 2008…from last night’s school board meeting.
Over on the Oakhurst Message Board, resident Suzanne Miller (who also referenced the annexation map/presentation) reports back from last night’s CSD Board Meeting and gives the impression that the city commission already considers the annexation a done deal and wants a blind-sided school board to brace itself for 500 additional students. (All of this assuming that residents in the annexed areas vote in favor of incorporation in November.)
Here’s a snippet from her reflection….
According to the discussion at the school board meeting last night,
the mayor is telling the school system to go ahead and plan for 500ish
kids because the annexation is going forward and the kids are going to
be there in 2009. He says that he is working to have the annexation
proposal approved in THIS legislative session. The demographer that
the school system hired to help them with planning also reported
tonight that city leaders told him that the annexation was for
practical purposes a done deal. In fact the demographer’s report went
ahead and assumed that all 500 (actually the estimate is between 422
and 526) kids would enter the school system in August 2009.All of this is in contrast to the messages that some
commissioners/city staff are putting out to citizens that this is only
in the preliminary stages and that no one has anything to worry about
because the Commission is only looking at its options. So, which is
it? Is it a done deal or are they only looking at it as an option for
sometime in the distant future? It appears that the answer to that
question depends on who is asking.
Obviously I can’t personally vouch for any of Suzanne’s recollections at this time, but I’m beginning to get the feeling that she is right about the city being a lot further along than they’ve claimed in either the GoDeKalb or AJC articles, where the city manager has said that discussions were only “preliminary”. Doesn’t a full-fledged presentation and analysis kind of fly in the face of that?
City staff will present their plan for annexation at next Tuesday’s (Jan 22nd) commission meeting. An official response from the city before that to clarify all of this would certainly be welcome.
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Decaturite,
You should note that because of the MLK Holiday, there will be no January 22 meeting of the City Commission. The meeting will be TONIGHT! Better hightail it down there if you want to have a say:
http://www.decaturga.com/cgs_citygov_commissionmeetings.aspx
(and click list of 2007 meeting dates which will take you to a list of 2008 meeting dates)
Sorry for the scare. My information is wrong. The regularly scheduled meeting for January 21 is now January 22. Disregard my previous comment!
Since they’ve talked about pretty much this same annexation plan for years, it’s no surprise that many in government would logically think of it as a done deal.
Carl, hope you don’t mind if I pick your brain.
Do you think that the view that the school board was caught off-guard by this is inaccurate? If its been talked about for years, than the school board must have had some inkling.
That’s my true concern. Not that the commission is farther along than many probably expect (a “done deal”), but that the school board has been kept out of the loop considering that the influx of students seems issue #1 to current residents.
That’s BS. The School Board has known for years that the city wanted to annex. In fact, that is one of the reasons I’ve been given that the school board has been holding on to the Fifth Avenue School property.
Outraged huh? That should get me some extra hits.
But seriously, I don’t claim to have been following this issue for any real extension of time. I’m just seeking clarification. While comments here indicate that some residents are well aware of this move for annexation, others (like myself) obviously were not.
If what’s been suggested by Outraged and Carl are true then both the city and CDS are fully aware of the annexation plan. Great! I’m glad to hear they’re in close communication.
But where’s the school’s plan for fitting these 500 students into the existing system? If the city decided it wanted to vet this idea to the papers, shouldn’t this element already have been in place prior to talking to the AJC? Now people are in a panic about an overcrowded school system and there’s been no response. Seems easily avoidable with a little planning.
Maybe I’m being impatient and need to hold my horses til the commission meeting next Tuesday, but if plan has been around for some time then its not like the city hasn’t had time to prepare for this.
My unofficial opinion is that City Schools of Decatur would be delighted with the influx, since most new City residents don’t have kids. It’s not easy attracting young families with the current housing prices and City taxes. Every new condo owner supports the school system but only a handful have or ever expect to have children in the system. Interestingly, when the plans were unveiled for the first downtown condo development in the late 90s (Decatur Towne Square), one of the initial public arguments against approval was that the school system would be inundated. That idea is laughable now if you know the average age of the residents there. With increasingly more condos coming our way (clearly geared towards single people if the 315 development is any indication), the City needs to expand to ensure that more affordable single family homes can potentially feed the schools.