From the DeKalb Neighbor…
City Schools of Decatur, which begins classes Monday, has doubled in size throughout the last 10 years or so, and Superintendent Phyllis Edwards said because they only operate in a four-square-mile area, it has been a challenge to accommodate the growth.
One helpful part will be the transformation of Westchester Elementary School back to a working educational facility, after being the hub of the school system’s operations for the last 10 years.
Also, eight classrooms have been added at 4/5 Academy at Fifth Avenue; seven classes were added at Renfroe Middle School and the maintenance facility has moved to Talley Street.
Projected student enrollment is 4,364, which Edwards said does not include about 350 children from birth to age 4. The school system is at 97 percent enrollment.
The Neighbor also has a nice profile of Westchester Elementary.
If you’re interested in the previous emrollment projections for the coming school year, click here.
We’re gonna need a bigger boat.
So very true! The bigger boats are needed at Renfroe and DHS.
Renfroe missed the boat. The referendum was killed and now they have been leapfrogged by DHS in the expansion line. And yes, they (RMS) are completely to the gills.
Oh, I know about the city commission not allowing the bond referendum on the ballot last fall – I attended that joint city commission/school board meeting last August. I hope the city commission starts to get it bc the school population is only getting bigger – and quickly! I just hope we don’t continue to see 70+ residences annexed simultaneously.
So excited to be part of Westchester this year! It has a wonderful vibe already.
Time to lay down the speed-sensitive spike strips on Garden and Lamont to stop the cut-through speeders!
I’ll bet there were already plenty of ppl cutting through Lamont to get to Clairemont?
I think it’s time we open our arms to the children in crisis at our borders and invite them to fill the final 3% of spaces.
Maybe we could we annex just the children, not the parents or real estate?
But that’s still only going to be revenue positive if we sell them rather than educating them.
I think you got it backyards. Parents and real estate are revenue positive – its the kids that are a drain on the system.
I thought we were tying to do good for others, not for ourselves. Now that I understand, how about we e-blast Paideia parents and give them an opportunity to fill the vacant slots on a pay tuition basis and give them a 10% discount over current Paideia rates.
Can we really keep saying our city is still 4 square miles after all the annexations? Surely we are up to 5 by now.
Question on this:
“Projected student enrollment is 4,364, which Edwards said does not include about 350 children from birth to age 4. The school system is at 97 percent enrollment.”
The 350 number is included as though it’s something noteworthy but, in the course of the four years it will take for these kids to enter the system, won’t we also lose 900 or more through graduation?
I guess I’m just unclear why this number is called out. Is it to make us more concerned or more confident? Or some other reason?
Does that 350 only include College Heights kids? I think we have a lot more kids ages 0-4 not in that 350 number
How many pre-K kids did not get into CH this year? A ton that I know of. Do they really have all the infants accounted for?
I think it is to clarify that the 4,364 is enrollment in pre-k through 12, and does not include the 350 0-4 year olds at College Heights.
The 3% not likely evenly distributed. Anybody know which K-3 schools have room and which are full?
Based on the elem. re-zoning projections, the south side K-3s, especially Oakhurst, are at or near capacity.
OAK is completely full, WP is very close (maybe 6 spots scattered amongst grades). The 3 k-3’s North of the tracks have spots in certain grade levels but are are full in others. Don’t know about FAVE. RMS and DHS could probably handle about a dozen plus more kids each (they, by law, can put way more kids in a class).
So consider this… If you bought one of the dozen or so houses currently going up in Oakhurst in the coming months and you had a kindergardener and a 3rd grader. It sounds like they would be hard pressed to even get both their kids at the same k-3!! It certainly wouldn’t be Oakhurst, and not likely at WP. So then go North. WC might have a 3rd grade spot but it’s K is full, GL might have a K spot but it’s 3rd grade is full, etc. That is, of course, worse case scenario, but it seems plausible. I’m guessing more changes will have to be made next year and it’s probably going to be all the learning cottages brought back.
“It sounds like they would be hard pressed to even get both their kids at the same k-3!! It certainly wouldn’t be Oakhurst, and not likely at WP. ”
I don’t think this is true. The fact that one family may have purchased a house a few years ago doesn’t give them priority over the spots in the classrooms. If you live in the school zone, you have a spot unless the maps are re-drawn.
It may be the timing of registration that is key- if a school is full, I think the district can send those that register after capacity to another school that has the space.
This is my understanding too.
Exactly. Any families registering at this point regardless of address will be sent where there are spots (if any). At OAK there are none.
97% of year ago or 97% of projected?
Whatever the 97% is a percentage of, we can probably expect another 5% over the next few weeks as stragglers arrive. Some folks don’t realize they have to register or don’t care. Others come from states with later school start dates. In the north, some kids are just starting 2 weeks of summer camp.
True there are always stragglers and that will change the numbers. – I am just wondering if this means we are actually DOWN from year ago. Small as it may seem I think that is a interesting. I think the 97% is likely of “projected” and the percent vs. Year Ago might be more like 104%. I also think it’s just interesting when we use numbers and don’t quite know what they mean. Growth or no growth all depend on what this is a percent of. I don’t see that anywhere in the note. 97% of what.
What percentage of the enrolled kids live outside city limits? It’s time to cut off the tuition kids.
New tuition students including siblings of currently enrolled already cut off. Are you suggesting kicking out the currently enrolled tuition students? Complementary (children of teachers and staff) and paying?
No easy answer here, but at a minimum, any tuition student should be the first to be moved to another school if the school they are in is at capacity. After that, tough choices may have to be made. Hopefully it won’t come to that and attrition will alleviate this in a couple of years.
Question: is CSD accepting new children of teachers, or they using the same attrition policy?
They already are, Dawgfan, and always have been. Current tuition kids’ schools are always up in the air until the end of May (for the past 2 years they have been finding out acceptance and school placement in the last week of school)
And Duggit – all new tuition students have been cut off for 3 years with a limited enrollment in particular grades allowed 4 years ago. There is no indication that new students would be accepted. The majority of current tuition students are in the upper grades (7-12) which means each year we graduate some without refilling those spots.
I’m so glad we are adding a 4 story apartment building and 4 other developments around the city. Time for more learning cottages!