Decatur Superintendent: DeVry Property Not a Possibility for Development
Decatur Metro | April 30, 2013 | 9:48 amThis is an idea that’s been dropped multiple times here on DM over the last couple weeks. Bill Banks at the AJC got an answer. As reported in Tuesday’s County-by-County recap,
Superintendent Phyllis Edwards “admitted the former DeVry University land in east Decatur is an “excellent location,” but added it’s not a current possibility for new school construction.”
Some context from the AJC article that explains WHY it’s not a possibility for development…
“The 21-acre site was annexed into the city in 2009, but it’s still owned by DeVry and the $17.5 million cost is especially prohibitive, she said.
Also the property’s currently zoned for mixed-use development.
Decatur schools are projected to double enrollment by 2018 with virtually no available undeveloped land that would support school facilities. — Bill Banks for the AJC”
It would also ruin Decatur City Schools as we know it. The centralized location is one of the reasons that makes the high school and middle school so successful.
I have to agree with this, if you mean centrally located vs. centralized. Being able to have middle and high schoolers able to walk independently much of the time to school and to after school activities and home fits that age group developmentally and is a real boon to busy, multiple sibling, and/or working families. For K-3 students, that much independence is not appropriate, but walking to/from a smaller neighborhood school is developmentally ideal. For the 4/5 Academy, it’s murkier. Unfortunately, nothing is totally centrally located because of the @#$%^& railroad tracks.
+1. Given what downtown learned in the 60s and 70s in terms of following suburban development patterns rather than embracing what we are, it pains me any time I see talk of applying comparable suburban patterns to our schools. And that’s what this would be: Moving institutions that would historically be at the heart of the community to the outskirts, totally discounting the larger civic role of educational investment.
Similar thinking prevailed when the Renfroe gym was built. In a traditional environment, buildings would have a meaningful interface with the streets that border them, contributing to their overall function and aesthetic character. In the ‘burbs, development pretends it doesn’t exist by hiding everything behind preposterous landscape berms. Which is what the architects on the gym did. Rather than provide an attractive complement to the houses across the street by providing appropriate doorways and a formal connection to the street, we got the ridiculous mini-Appalacian ridge that exists today.
So stop suburbanizing stuff! And apologies for the threadjack. Screed over.
What is the price tag for the Calloway building? Probably still cost-prohibitive, but geographically it seems like the perfect place for expansion.
http://decatur.patch.com/articles/decatur-ok-s-sales-agreement-for-callaway-building
“The sale agreement calls for the city to pay the county $5,089,300 or $25 per square foot, which ever is greater.”
My understanding is that it will be a cold day in Hades before the City will even consider giving CSD any kind of access (sale or other) to the Calloway building.
Why? Not arguing, just wondering.
Because the city has other plans for that property that further city priorities. The city and the school system are separate entities each with their own agenda.
That’s basically right, smith, although we should always encourage them both to think comprehensively about what’s good for Decatur, as their constituents want them to do. If residents felt strongly about using Callaway as a school, and forcefully lobbied for it, then it might possibly happen.
I do wonder how the cost would compare to the current plans: Callaway as middle school, perhaps using some joint facilities with DHS worked into that renovation and maybe reducing costs. 4/5 to an unrenovated Renfroe — city-wide schools should be centrally located (therefore NOT Devry). Opening 5th Ave for K-3 in the area where the big K-3 population growth is. Current renovation of 5th Ave no longer needed.
Be careful. You are making sense.
Better late than never!
That is a great idea. Hopefully, it’s not too late for the school board and commissioners to think about such creative solutions. My fear is they have already decided on Option 3 of the Master Plan.
Although, I still have big concerns about the potential 1,700 middle schoolers in one building. I still feel like Elementary should be K-4, then have a 5/6, 7/8, then high school.
The idea of 1,700 middle schoolers in one town kind of gives me the willies. All hail the people who voluntarily go into the building with any number of them every day and manage to teach them anything.
Very true!
This has appeal. I have to say that I kind of like the railroad tracks separating Renfroe socially and developmentally from Decatur High. But that’s not a biggie compared to keeping both our middle and high schools centrally located with adequate space.
When Beacon Hill development discussions were being had, what was the reply on whether or not it could serve as a school site once again? Seems like a better option than taking a commercially viable property (Calloway) off the tax roles. Is it too late to consider some kind of Beacon Hill/Ebster site for a school? Is there room at Ebster? (I have no idea)
I think that ship has long sailed and that location is completely committed to the new police station and CSD headquarters. But I’m not in the know. Back when the idea was brought up, it was treated as mutiny against the FAVE location but it seemed like a sound one to me. If it’s logistically possible, and it may not be, a central location is ideal for city-wide schools.
The Beacon site will have CSD central offices. The building could not have been converted back to a school – they would have had to started from the ground up. Remember that one reason for moving the CSD offices there was to be able to convert Westchester back into a school, which is quite feasible at relatively low cost.
One of the Renfroe options is restarting from the ground up, other than the gym…
I understand that the Beacon Hill option is gone (and am very much looking forward to the new Beacon Hill facilities). I just wonder if there is other central land that isn’t currently on the tax rolls or being planned for commercial development that would work out. Does Ebster not have space? a hillside school? Just throwing ideas out there.
Another consideration- any new land that is taken over for school use then will then drop off the tax rolls, thereby increasing the cost of the expansion for the next many moons.
One thing nobody mentions is the open space on the DHS block. You could build a parking deck on the lower lot site to replace the upper lot, then build up there. You also have the open land that fronts on Commerce that the Raiders use. It seems to me all of this should be looked at before the schools take aim on the City’s cash cow (aka the Callaway Bldg)
I’m probably missing a key issue but, on the surface, this seems like a great idea. Of course, teens will ding their cars more often in a parking deck than in a wide open parking lot but a well-lit parking deck close in to the school might actually be safer than the isolated upper lot now at night.
Would this option encroach upon the DHS garden? That might be an issue. But perhaps there’s another place for it?
At the CSD Master Planning Community Forum at DHS on May 1st, Jason Ware addressed the issue of parking structures.
The Q&A for the most recent session does not appear to be up yet, but when it is, you should be able to find it at the top of the right side column on: http://www.csdecatur.net/master-plan/
If my memory isn’t failing me, he indicated that the cost of building a parking structure comes in around $15,000 per parking space.
While we are on the topic of school facilities/building/land, don’t forget the following School Leadership Team forums to hear about the CSD Master Planning and have a chance to give feedback or ask questions:
Tomorrow, May 1, 9 AM, DHS Auditorium
Thursday, May 2, 6:30 PM, DHS Auditorium
Friday, May 3, 8:00 AM, Renfroe
Making comments on this blog is fun and raises a little awareness but has nowhere near the impact that showing up in person at a forum has. And while you’re there, pick up a Publix Partner Card at the office if you don’t already have one. And drop off boxtops at Renfroe. (When in doubt about the schools, fundraise!)
Huge missed opportunity: I am a 14-year Decatur resident with no kids who pays reasonably close attention to what’s going on around town and whose supermarket shopping is nearly all done at Publix and I say, “What is this Publix Partner Card of which you speak?”
Ditto. What is this and what should we be doing with it???
I always thought that the schools insert in Decatur Focus should include a list of easy things the community can do to support the schools, like the publix card. It took me forever to find out about that too. Maybe a DM post too? AHID could write it up…
Found it on the FAVE PTO site:
http://www.favepto.org/fundraising
– it’s like the CVS card, you just hand it to the cashier before you check out, and the school gets credit for your purchase. Some other good ideas on that site as well. I didn’t know about the Target card – the Arriba family could raise a lot with that one!
You don’t even need a separate card for the Target school program – just register the Target card you already have. Plus, using the Target card at a Target store gives you an automatic 5% discount.
Yeah, the school passive fundraising is a huge missed opportunity. I’ve tried on this blog and many other places to push passive fundraising. Many others have done much more than I have. But it’s an uphill battle because PTA leaders, fundraising volunteers, and the families that participate keep moving on and up as their kids move to the next level of schools. I would LOVE to think of a way to institutionalize passive fundraising for CSD in the community.
Short answer: Publix Partner Cards are little plastic cards coded to a particular school that you swipe whenever you make a Publix purchase. A small percentage of what you spend goes to the school. But that small percentage adds up over the course of year and many participants. And it costs you nothing, other than remembering to use the card. I put the card next to my credit card so I remember. CSD schools have sometimes earned a few thousand a year from Publix Partner Cards when they’ve managed to get a large number of cards out into the hands of families, relatives, friends, neighbors, and teachers. More typically, our schools each earn between $500 to $1,000 annually. This is small change compared to millions of dollars of construction but big bucks for PTAs–it buys a lot of field trips, supplies, special arts and music events, even equipment and teacher training. I’ve been known to hand the cards out at social events. I’ve heard of large schools in Georgia with hyperactive PTAs earning in the tens of thousands of dollars. (N.B.: This is a Georgia Publix program, not national. These cards don’t work in Florida. I’ve tried.)
You get your Publix Partner Card from any school office (just buzz at the door and walk in!) or any school PTA (contact info on PTA websites linked to school websites). If you want to support multiple schools you can (the system divides up the donation).
Long answer mentioning other passive fundraising opportunities will come later tonight when I have time. Meanwhile: GET YOUR PUBLIX PARTNER CARD and USE IT!
P.S.: The Kroger Plus card used to do the same thing for schools but they stopped a few years ago claiming they had shifted to other ways of supporting schools. Haven’t seen a dollar from them show up in CSD yet. I’m still sulking over this one. We would earn even more from Kroger than Publix.
I appreciate your taking the time to respond, but…I had to work way too hard to find out what I need to know: it’s a card to swipe when I shop at Publix that prompts them to give some little % to the school, that the donations are school-specific but I can split it between more than one school. Do I have to designate that split on every purchase, or can they make that part of my card set-up so it happens automatically?
The best way to reach people like me with information like this is a SHORT, TO-THE-POINT blurb repeated on a regular basis (quarterly) in the Oakhurst Leaflet, on the Oakhurst listserve, and in the Decatur Focus. The bottom line is, here is a way to help our (as in “our community’s”) education system without spending any more money than we’re already spending.
Re “Do I have to designate that split on every purchase, or can they make that part of my card set-up so it happens automatically?”: You have to hand in the partner card for each school you want to support each time. It’s really no more work if you keep the cards together in your wallet. I choose to support just one school at a time so that the contribution is bigger. I always choose the school of my oldest child figuring that the donation will eventually help both my children. Other families choose to split the donation.
Blurbs in community newsletters may be the best way to go. School newsletters and eblasts are what is usually used to get the word out among school families. PTAs have short, tight, edited versions on some of their websites and in their newsletters/eblasts. But it requires active remembering by the passive fundraising volunteers to submit regularly and that memory and momentum wanes every time that volunteers turn over. I keep trying to think of a way to institutionalize the fundraising so it’s more on auto-pilot. Still thinking….
I think that a good way to spread word is through Publix. For example, during the first month of school ask the Decatur Publix manager to hand them out to cashiers and ask them to offer them to customers who aren’t already using them.
I don’t think Publix stores will get cashiers involved but it’s worth an ask. Some Publix stores, e.g. the one at N. Druid Hills and Lawrenceville Hwy. will put buckets out at the checkout lanes for different schools and shoppers can grab one if they choose. The degree to which a Publix store will promote the cards depends on the store manager. It’s actually a big headache to order the cards–forms, long waits, reminding the central Publix department that issues them, etc. It takes months.
This discussion makes me realize that every CSD school PTA has to duplicate these efforts itself, leaning either on its own institutional memory or borrowing ideas from other schools. We don’t have a council of PTAs to store and disseminate institutional memory, common solutions, and ideas. I wonder if other school systems do. As much as I enjoy this thread, I am not a PTA superstar leader, just an enthusiastic fundraiser with the experience that comes from being around the schools a long while.
Why not? They are constantly asking me to donate money at the register. Why not offer me a free way to help local schools?
Maybe the store managers can be persuaded. I used to know the manager at the Emory Commons Publix real well and he was fantastically helpful and even showed up at some school events, but he’s moved on. The biggest challenge with fundraising is that your volunteers, partners, and contributors keep turning over. There probably is no auto-pilot. But what if a Publix Partner card went out with every tax bill from the city……
What if the PTAs worked in concert instead of in competition with each other? Then turnover wouldn’t be such a big deal, and doing something to contribute wouldn’t be so complicated for non-parents. It’s not as if a dollar that goes to Clairmont instead of Oakhurst is going across the state. Rising tide lifts all boats, right? It sounds like I need a separate Publix Partner card for each school I want to support, or else I have to choose one which in itself constitutes a barrier to following through. Then, it’s up to me to go find a PTA website and figure out how to get the card and use it… Seems like there could be more benefit generated per erg of hardworking fundraiser energy than is currently happening…
I don’t think that the schools are or want to be in competition with one another at all. There just doesn’t seem to be a mechanism for working as a unit. To get donations from passive fundraising partners, you have to have a school tax ID and all that. That’s why I was wondering about whether councils of PTAs exist. Some fundraising is going to work best locally–e.g. a K-3 PTA raising money for their own garden or whatever. But fundraising out in the community might work better and more automatically if it was joint fundraising and unaffiliated community members didn’t have to choose a particular school. Now, there IS the Decatur Education Foundation–but that’s about active, large scale fundraising, not passive fundraising.
choose a card that benefits Renfroe or DHS and you capture benefit to all students
Thanks for all the great info!
From the AJC article: “Decatur schools are projected to double enrollment by 2018….”
Really? Where is that projection from?
https://eboard.eboardsolutions.com/Meetings/Attachment.aspx?S=4052&AID=440623&MID=30199
I was going to say “Magically, out of thin air.” But that’s pretty much the same thing as the link Garrett provided
Seriously, I’m willing to bet some good money that enrollment doesn’t come close to those projections. I have no doubt that, barring unforeseen events, it will rise. But other forces will cause it to plateau or recede before it gets to those crazy numbers. Really, I’m not trying to be funny or snarky, I’m really curious to know if I’m in the great minority in doubting these numbers.
+1
The current enrollment projection methodology was one of the things which came out of the Enrollment Committee’s Final Report back in January, 2012:
https://eboard.eboardsolutions.com/Meetings/Attachment.aspx?S=4052&AID=351747&MID=22747
It happens that the enrollment projections for this year using this method were 99.6% accurate:
https://eboard.eboardsolutions.com/Meetings/Attachment.aspx?S=4052&AID=401191&MID=26600
Personally, I acknowledge that it is questionable to assume you can drive forward indefinitely by looking in the rear view mirror. But perhaps in this case looking back 12 years would be useful. We currently have around 180 seniors. 12 years ago, we had almost the same number of 1st graders. Today we have 385 1st graders.