From the CSD website…

Summer Enrichment Camps! There are still spaces available in camps taught by our own CSD teachers!  Sign up your child today!  For more information see: http://www.cys.decaturga.com Playbook March 10 Phone: 404-378-1082   404-377-0494

The following CSD teacher-led camps are held at Clairemont Elementary and still have spaces available: June 7-11

• Camp Wanna Cook-a-lot | 9:00-12:00  |  4-5 year olds  |  taught by Dana Kinney, DHS Culinary Arts teacher
• Totally Awesome Technology, Beginners |  9:00-4:00  |  6-12 year olds  |  taught by 4 Glennwood teachers:  Marie Tingle (4th grade), Colleen Dunbar (Art teacher), Laconia Massaquoi (Music and Links teacher) and Steve Bartl (media specialist)
• Spanish Camp I |  9:00-4:00  |  5-8 year olds  |  taught by Luis Mercado and Yunilda Vargas, RMS Spanish teachers
• Culture Club |  1:00-4:00  |  5-8 year olds  |  taught by Courtney Hartnett, Oakhurst Links teacher
• Who’s That Crawling? |  9:00-12:00  |  5-8 year olds  |  taught by Nancy Woodley, Winnona Park Art teacher

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A $5 million increase in tax revenue from new construction in the City of Decatur over the past year wasn’t enough to offset a $9 million decline due to reassessments, according to a letter to the city commission from Assistant City Manager Andrea Arnold (pages 45-46).

Declines were also prevalent across personal property (-14.5%), public utilities (-29%) and motor vehicle values (-8%), though these digests made up only 6% of the total tax digest, resulting in an overall -1.7% decline.

Even with an overall decline in revenue, Arnold is recommending the commission hold the millage rate at last year’s level.

However, Arnold does note that the city commission could technically raise the millage rate slightly from 13.035 to 13.142 mills without being required to advertise it under Georgia’s “Truth in Taxation” legislation because the declines in the overall digest mentioned above would off-set the millage increase, resulting in an overall “decline” in taxes.

Regardless, Arnold recommends two public hearing dates for the budget:  Monday June 7th and June 21st.  She also notes that the city will solicit feedback on the Open City Hall website.

The city commission is tentatively scheduled to adopt the millage rate at tonight’s meeting: 7:30p at City Hall.

With final approval of the plans for Decatur’s new 5th Avenue 4/5 Academy going before the city commission tonight, it will soon be time to tackle another key component of adding another school to the K-5, red-bricky mix: reconfiguration of the school “attendance zones.”

When will this happen and how will this work?  Well, as some of you more devout CSDers may have noticed, Superintendent Phyllis Edwards referenced the process in her recent letter regarding pre-K placement at Clairemont Elementary…

Over the summer, we will be working with Georgia State University to develop three options for redrawing the zoning lines.  This is in preparation for presenting options to the community, the SLTs, and the School Board.  I hope to have plans available in the fall [2010] so a decision can be made early in the year and families will know which school their child is zoned for in the 2011-2012 school year and beyond.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out.

In deciding to build a 4/5 Academy at 5th Avenue, one of the key concerns stated by the Reconfiguration Committee and the School Board was maintaining racial diversity within the school system.  A key component of the 2003 reconfiguration was extending Oakhurst Elementary’s attendance zone up into northwest Decatur to diversify the student population.  Turning Glennwood Elementary into a K-3 again creates a “school-heavy” east side of Decatur, with Oakhurst Elementary the only K-3 west of the unofficial Clairemont/McDonough split.

Assuming the preference that most kids go to the school closest to their respective homes, northwest Decatur again becomes the wild-card.

And before anyone yells “Free Westchester!”, note that the Superintendent’s letter also relays that she will be talking with the School Board about starting a community discussion regarding whether and how to reopen the Scott Boulevard school.