Decatur’s motto proudly boasts the berg as the  “City of Homes, Schools and Places of Worship”.

Perhaps this phrase is an apt starting point for tonight’s Community Academy discussion taking place at the Holiday Inn Conference Center!

Why?

Well, in addition to making Decatur sound like a tranquil place to live – filled with educated youths and faithful congregations – it also (inadvertently) points out Decatur’s expensive student population and general lack of commercial space.  (We don’t market ourselves as the City of Homes, Retirees, and Businesses!)

In fact, looking at the focus of our nifty primary colors logo through greenback-colored glasses, you might guess that Decatur has a residential tax burden that is “higher…than most anywhere else around”.  And you’d be right, according to a recent post on the event over on Decatur Next!

If you look closely, this burden is embedded in many on-going discussions within our community.  From annexation to density concerns to attracting more residents of the non-breeding persuasion, it all comes back to finding new ways of attracting additional businesses and retirees, who pay more in taxes than they get in return, and thereby easing everyone’s residential property taxes.

If you have ideas regarding this most important of Decatur issues, you might just want to show up tonight night and stun the mindful masses.  Here’s what Decatur Next promises at the event…

During the meeting at the Holiday Inn Conference Center, participants will get hands-on with a city map, looking at each of our potential growth areas and determining what uses are most in line with their context and surrounding needs. There will then be discussion of what services and employment options are lacking in Decatur and how we might go about attracting them.

If you enjoy getting down to business, especially when it involves dealing with regional, national and global factors we have no control over, then this is the session for you.

From the Decatur School Board’s agenda next Tuesday…

Requested Action

Move approval to narrow the list of K-3 enrollment zone options to Maps 4 and 8 and table the decision until the next regularly-scheduled Board meeting.

Background

In the continuing project related to K-3 enrollment zones for the 2011-2012 school year, CSD has responded to community feedback on the seven maps that were posted electronically and in the pre-K-5 school sites for public comment following the October 12, 2010 Board work session.

First of all, free and reduced lunch data was added on October 27, 2010. This data set was always intended to be added; the cutoff for families to submit an application for consideration had just closed and our School Nutrition staff worked diligently to verify family-submitted information and enter the results into our student information database. Results were sent to our Georgia State University partners who superimposed the data set on the existing maps.

Upon analysis of the narrative comments offered by community members, Maps 4 and 7 emerged as most appealing. Map 4 offers the best racial and socioeconomic mix, labeled “differential” on the pros/cons list. Map 7 allowed one of the smallest school sites, Clairemont, to remove the learning cottage.

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The Decatur Arts Alliance’s Angie Macon writes in…

There are no more tickets available online for the Decatur Wine Festival.  There are a limited number of printed tickets still available at Decatur Package Store.  Please advise folks to call Herb before they make the trip to make sure there are tickets left.  Decatur Package phone number is (404) 633-5250.

Already have your tickets?  Good for you!  You can view event details, including the wine list, over on the Decatur Wine Festival website.