In any case, the challenges confronting CSD that stem directly from burgeoning enrollment are bigger than just downtown density or residential annexation. Kids are going to keep flooding in, even if we try to jam stoppers in those two pipelines–which I am not convinced is even feasible, never mind the trade-offs required, particularly with respect to downtown development. See Warren B’s numerous articulations of why we need to encourage density and varied use downtown from a fiscal perspective. And then there are the non-tangible, non-material values that Decatur residents have repeatedly indicated we want to preserve and nurture.

Decatur is a great place to live. Ensuring it is still a great place to live 10, 25, 50 years from now requires thinking beyond the schoolyard. As long as we depend on property taxes and state funding (such as it is and such as it may be down the road) to finance our public schools, families with school-age children are never going to foot the entire bill. That’s as it should be. Our vested interest in public education shouldn’t be all about property values–it’s supposed to be a path toward an informed, engaged citizenry. But I digress. The point is that we all need to be not just willing but happy to ante up.

ON THE OTHER HAND, keeping Decatur desirable for people in age and life-stage segments other than child-roaring (oops) means offering quality-of-life incentives beyond lovely schools. Which bring us back around to things we Decaturites have already said we value, through not one but two cycles of strategic planning that span 10 years. Walkability. Diversity of all kinds. A vibrant downtown with places to eat and drink and shop and just be. An infrastructure that supports not only young families but those just starting out, and older households and the option to “age in place.”

Too late to make a long story short. Bottom line: We shouldn’t look at everything ONLY through the lens of what it might mean for CSD classrooms given current configurations. More kids are coming because more people are coming. Maybe they’re coming a few at a time through annexations. Maybe they’re coming a few or more at a time through residential development downtown. You can be damned sure they’re coming through more single-family properties turning over. (How many single-family sites in Oakhurst that changed hands in the last 15 years passed from one no-kids household to another? I’ll bet you can’t find a dozen, certainly not two.) So the school system, like the municipality, has to figure out how to grow and change to accommodate what’s coming while preserving its heart and soul and whatever it is that makes us Decatur. Not easy. Really, really hard. It needs all of our attention and energy and imagination. Focusing too narrowly on the evils of annexation or downtown density amounts to rearranging deck chairs.

And here’s a challenge to anybody that wants to rush in and poke holes in my metaphors: resist. It’s too easy.