CSD sent out this email blast this afternoon…

Dear Parents and Community Members:

The District Calendar Committee presented the 2015-2016 and 2016-2017 academic year calendars to the Board of Education during the July 2014 Board Work Session and Meeting.  The Board tabled the approval of the calendars for 30 days to allow the community to offer feedback.  If you have thoughts or questions about the recommended calendars, please email  and place the word “Calendars” in the Subject line.  The deadline to offer comments is August 7, 2014.  The calendars can be downloaded below for your perusal.

• Draft 2015-2016 School Year Calendar
• Draft 2016-2017 School Year Calendar

The District Calendar Committee met during the spring of 2014 to accomplish the charge of drafting the 2015-2016 calendar and 2016-2017 calendar to recommend to the superintendent. The calendar committee is comprised of School Leadership Team (SLT) Members, staff and parents.

The committee reviewed several factors that were used to develop our current school calendars. The current calendar pattern has been utilized for the past four years, since 2010-2011 school year. This calendar pattern was evaluated after two years of use and continues to be recommended by the committee after the review of data.

This year’s District Calendar Committee has recommended the calendar structure be maintained, thus offering the 2015-2016 and 2016-2017 draft calendars for the Board’s review.

Each year poses its own challenges in calendar construction.

Read the rest of this entry »

The Decatur Minute alerts residents that the upcoming film “Triple Nine” will be filming on Kings Highway this week…

The City of Decatur has issued a film permit to 999 Productions, LLC for filming of a project titled TRIPLE NINE to take place in the 200 block of Kings Highway in the evening and overnight hours beginning today through Friday morning.

Stretches of Ansley Street and Kings Highway will also be used for filming some neighborhood driving shots. To safely accommodate filming, Decatur Police will be directing traffic with stoppages lasting no longer than 3 minutes. Most of this work will be done in the evening and through the night until 8am on July 12.

The production company  realizes they are guests in the neighborhood and the cast and crew will treat it with the utmost respect. In general, there will be some noise due to special effects associated with filming such as bright lights and engine noises. Also, the city has given permission to have the street lights turned off during the filming. Additional officers will be present to keep the area safe and secure.

The movie stars Aaron Paul, Michael B. Jordan, Norman Reedus, Casey Affleck, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Kate Winslet, Michael Pena, Teresa Palmer, Woody Harrelson, and Gal Gado, among others.  The filming site “On Location Vacations” calls “Triple Nine” one of the most anticipated shoots of the summer.

IMDB summarizes the film’s plot thusly…

A group of corrupt police officers are blackmailed into pulling off a seemingly impossible heist. They plot the murder of a rookie police officer in order to orchestrate a “999”, code for ‘officer down’, to pull off the heist across town.

Aaron Paul photo courtesy of Wikipedia

As announced of Monday, Decatur’s new tree ordinance is now the law of the land.

There are many changes to the ordinance, but the first one to be aware of is that you now need to register tree removal with the city by applying and receiving a free permit.  You can apply for a permit online HERE.

The city’s dedicated webpage on the new ordinance contains a lot of info on the intricacies of the new ordinance, but here’s their high-level summary…

According to the Tree Canopy Conservation Ordinance, property owners in residential zoning districts are allowed to remove up to 3 healthy, protected trees during an 18 month period. A tree information permit shall be filed with the City to track the reasons for the tree removal, the amount of tree canopy removed and a plan for replanting if applicable. No recompense or replanting is required if only 3 trees are removed within the 18 month period. 

Note that residential zoned properties that are pending real estate sale or title transfer, have been sold or title transferred in the past 18 months, are pending demolition, or have had a dwelling on the site that has been demolished in the past 18 months, are subject to the tree removal permit requirements and must comply with the tree conservation plan required.