Decatur School Enrollment Hits All-Time High — As Predicted
Decatur Metro | October 6, 2014 | 11:14 am
The AJC reports that Decatur school enrollment has reached a record high of 4,334 students, surpassing the previous high in 1969-70 of 4,268 students. This handy chart from CSD in 2012 above provides you with a good overview of the system’s historical enrollment trending.
The enrollment has only grown by 5 students since the last time we reported this data, but the historical context here is obviously the interesting piece.
The blurb also notes that the city’s enrollment size will grow to 7,398 if the current year-over-year growth trend continues through 2019-20, which is what CSD is currently projecting. All future estimates do not currently account for any future city annexations.
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August 7, 2014 Decatur School Enrollment Closes In On Projection, Kindergarten Grows (51)
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February 24, 2015 UPDATED: New Info From Last Night’s Decatur School Board Special Bond Session (108)
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July 31, 2014 Decatur Enrollment at 97% As School Year Begins (31)
1979-1994 – White Flight
1994-1997 – In-town Living
1997-2002 – Internet Bubble
2003-2006 – Housing boom
2006-2007 – Annexation for DerryDown
2007-2009 – Annexation for 11 Midway Road parcels
2009-2013 – Annexation for Midway Road
2012-2013 – Dekalb County Schools accreditation on probation
2003-2013 – Mixed use Buildings
2009 Atlanta Public Schools Cheating Scandal.
It’s called quality of life, a great education system and all of the reasons that Decatur keeps showing up on the “best place to live” rankings. The number of students from recently annexed neighborhoods and mixed-use developments are nothing more than footnotes.
1997-2002: Temporary dip while all the parents who had been pioneers in the early 1990s, sending their children back to the local public schools after almost two decades of white flight, became empty nesters but weren’t quite ready to leave their single family homes. As soon as those homes started to turn over to young families, CSD enrollment returned to its upward trajectory.
You left out the desegregation of our elementary schools in 2003, and I think you overstate the effect of a few dozen households being added to a city of several thousand.
The schools were not segregated in that year. While there were several schools that had a large black population, no school was entirely white.
I chose a hyperbolic term to make a point – the redistricting of our elementary schools was a HUGE factor in the growth in enrollment. Especially when you consider that the Oakhurst area has been the key driver of that enrollment growth.
I’m curious as to how current school buildings compare to those back in 1969. I assume there was more total classroom space available then because it was still the early stages of desegregation. Anyone go to Decatur High in the 1960s?
Around 2000 when all the elementary schools were renovated there was enough capacity at DHS for a whole elementary school to move in. And so they did.
Yumpin’ Yimminy. That’s a lot of learning cottages, I tell you what.
My neighbor graduated with 70 people from Decatur High in the early 90s. The K class is 400+.
I hope someone on the City Council reads this blog. I was hoping my kids would go to a smallish high shool. 400+ with 12 years to grow is intimidating.
“My neighbor graduated with 70 people from Decatur High in the early 90s.”
The halls must have felt as roomy as a Kramer-striped highway lane!
So luxurious!
400+? I think we’re going to need a bigger boat.
Only the good kids allowed in the boat. All the others dumped in the moat!
“All future estimates do not currently account for any future city annexations.”
http://www.decaturga.com/Modules/ShowDocument.aspx?documentid=5373
Wake up, Decatur.
Decatur High (9-12) 1077 = 270 students per grade
Renfroe Middle (6-8) 938 = 312 students per grade
4/5 Acadamy (4-5) 670 = 335 students per grade
Elementary (k-3) schools = 415 students per grade
College Heights (prek) = 58 per average grade
Winno Park Elementary (k-3) 366 = 91 per grade
Oak Hurst Elementary (k-3) 463 = 116 per grade
Glenn Elementary (k-3) 265 = 67 per grade
Clairemont Elementary (k-3) 306 = 77 per grade
*NOTE: most numbers were rounded up.
Where’s Westchester’s data?
Lesson learned in 1966, 1971, 1989, 1997, 2002: never assume that the line will continue to go in the same direction just because it’s a line…assess the current situation, not the past. Families are people making human decisions, not mathematical functions. Lessons from all the other years: a line will continue if the forces producing it continue.
I agree. My guess is the pressure on Decatur schools is being caused by a trend for more families to live closer to town combined with redistricting fears and the scandals and incompetence of the Atlanta and Dekalb County school systems. This whole trend will likely turn on a dime if the legislature gives the new cities being formed in Dekalb the authority to run their own school systems. Even if that change doesn’t happen, I think the stain of the scandals will wear off over time and families won’t be so averse to some of the better school districts in Atlanta and Dekalb.
From the BOE_ Commission_JointMeeting_08_05_13.pdf City Schools of Decatur Master Plan shows that the numbers for students going to 5250 to 6000+ by 2018.
It will cost $40 million to expand Decatur High and $20 million to expand Renfroe Middle School to accommodate current growth without any additional annexation.
SPLOT IV will still have to approved by November 2016 elections (Dekalb County). The money will be used no matter if annexation occurs.
Millage rate will still need to go up even if annexation occurs.
Unless someone can show me numbers to contrary, millage rates will go up MORE with annexation, particularly in the long run. We will need bigger additions to 4/5, Renfroe, DHS. We will need a whole new K-3 in the north. Will we see vacant car lots and underdeveloped commercial real estate go “mixed use”? And “mixed use” by the way allows for cluster homes with no minimum commercial percentage.
Annexation is not about a money grab, or if it is it’s not for the sake of the Decatur tax base, because every study that’s been done has shown it to LOSE money when the City and CSD are looked at TOGETHER. If anyone tells you that annexation will help the financially strapped school system, know that there are other powerful agendas at work.
The problem with the Decatur tax base is that residential valuations have risen far faster than commercial valuations. The tax burden has SHIFTED to residents/voters.
+1
Not to contradict your numbers, Judd, (which I know have been vetted out the wazoo) but I’m interested in what you mean by “powerful agendas” because it’s an allusion that comes up often (by many) in these discussions.
I’ve seen lots of talk about how the commission wants this or wants that because of their own agenda but I’ve never seen anyone spell out how it is city leadership will benefit from contradicting the will and interests of the community? That is, if it’s true that annexation efforts will prove financially draining and no one in the city wants them to happen (not your words but a summary of common suggestions), what exactly would be any commissioner’s motivation? They don’t, as far as I’m aware, own any affected property and, if the result would be a backlash of epic proportions, they’d most likely lose their jobs come election time. So why would they do it?
The suggestion that people would act in opposition to both their own and the community they represent’s best interests, for no identifiable reason other than an “agenda” that no one’s been able to articulate, just doesn’t add up. Is it that they just don’t get it? If so, that’s a matter of being ill-informed, not power hungry (though no one has shown, either, that any commissioner’s “power” grows in any appreciable way if this happens).
That’s where I’m hung up. Beyond the hysterics (not yours, but generally), what are the powerful interests forcing this to happen and what’s motivating those interests to do so?
That’s just it. No one can figure out why these residential annexations would be attractive to the commissioners. It seems to be a mystery because the commission does not explain its thought process when it annexes residential. Or maybe they are all just clueless? The majority have no children in school.
Does anyone, either local media or people at the meetings, ever ask them?
Decatur should consider annexation of Druid Hills and possibly Medlock. In Druid Hills, the tax base of high priced homes, most kids in private schools already, plus 1000 student newly constructed Fernbank Elementary would be a nice low cost addition. Medlock annexation may make the Walmart/Scott Blvd commercial annexation more palatable and there’s quite a bit of land available at Medlock (ICS) for future school expansion.
Welp, time to start spikin’ the drinkin’ water with birth control meds. Or wait–since this is Decatur, the craft beer on tap…
The population size of the City is greater than the schools capacity. If the City continues to annex more land the same problem will continue. More people want to get a better quality of life for their children. There are children already living in the Million dollar condos in the City.
Of course the census in 2010 report more kids coming to Decatur from 2000 to 2010:
http://www.decaturmetro.com/2011/07/25/decatur-2010-census-confirms-family-influx/
Does any one want to Update Rosser’s Report again for current study?
http://www.decaturmetro.com/2008/11/26/rossers-student-count-for-annexation-areas-revised/
DHS had over 1000 students in the late 60″s early 70’s. There was room to grow there at that time. The sports teams competed in “AAA” which was the largest classification in the state at that time. The elementary schools are where the limitations might exist.
What if you decided that you the citizens of Decatur, not home builders and real estate brokers, are in charge of Decatur’s schools? What if you identified the essential qualities that make Decatur’s schools great and decided to preserve those things and make everything else fungible? What if those essential qualities were the scale of the system and the fact that true learning is a function of teacher-student engagement and more or less independent of physical facilities?
Then, what if you quit building more classrooms? What if, instead, you invest in non-permanent, modular facilities that can be deployed when and where needed and mothballed when not needed? What if you could take a portion of what you’re contemplating spending on more buildings and invest it in teachers and parapros instead?
+1 about investing in teachers and paraprofessionals and I could add a few more academic items. There’s no question that the strength of CSD has always been its excellent teachers, staff, and families, reasonable class sizes, and sense of community. I’m not completely anti-facilities and I’m glad that we have decent Central Office facilities now so we don’t have to use classroom space for offices but I have no illusions that buildings, whiteboards, gyms, and technology are sufficient. I’d trader fancy space for caring teachers any day.
Will you draw a line in the red clay and say, “No more buildings!”? Will you stand up and say that what makes CSD great are the teachers, parents and students and the person-to-person engagement that is rooted in a small footprint and manageable scale? Will you say that instruction is more important than bricks? That great teachers with solid support and resources can achieve transformational outcomes for students regardless of whether they’re sitting in fancy, new school buildings or non-permanent facilities? That “state of the art educational systems” begin and end with a combination of three things: outstanding teachers (and administrators who find, hire and support them), healthy students and engaged families? That Decatur is a geographically small city that chooses to scale its school facilities accordingly, with modular abilities to swell and contract as needed to accommodate fluctuating enrollment, instead of building out (where? with what money?) to accommodate peaks and then being left with under-utilized physical plant during lulls?
If you build it, they will come. The real question is, who are you building for–your children or theirs?
I’ve always advocated for teachers and paraprofessionals over all other CSD priorities. However, I’ve found enrollment and space issues to be more complex than they were initially presented or as I originally understood. Back when schools were closing, the sea of 2 year olds seemed to predict rising rather then falling enrollment and that turned out to be true. But I thought that the huge recession of ~2006-2010 would dampen the local birthrate and subsequent enrollment but that didn’t turn out to be true. Modular expandable/retractable building makes sense to me but some say that we don’t have the land space or budget for a sufficient number of modular classrooms. Building is evidently financed totally different from operational costs like modular classrooms. I thought it was crazy that we were adding on to school buildings within a year of deciding to close whole schools.
An important variable that I still don’t understand is–how long is this record high enrollment going to continue to climb? And will it peak and then decline? Or will the increase be sustained? Will the $800,000 homes fade in glory like previous housing stock and eventually be populated by empty nesters or will it continue to be a hot market for families? That would influence whether permanent buildings vs. more flexible, modular facilities are the way to go. Either way, the funds for building may continue to be easier for CSD to access than the funding for modular solutions–if so, I’ll bet building will win.
I don’t understand this post at all. First of all, Decatur’s residents ARE in charge of our school system, not developers or real estate brokers. We live here, engage with school leadership and teachers, vote in the elections, and raise the children – builders and RE agents are just middlemen for housing transactions – market participants, not oligarchs.
Second, many of us do believe that the scale of the system is the key differentiator vs. other public school systems in Metro ATL. That scale is obviously being impacted by growth, and something we need to do better to protect in these silly residential annexation requests, but even if we get to 8k students we are still A) relatively tiny and B) attracting the kind of families who reject the suburban norm and understand the community we’ve built here. We are hardly industrializing the system like some county systems are.
We have been and will continue to be flexible in our facilities with temporary accomodations such as trailers and the mothballing of Westchester until it needed to be reopened. Even College Heights has been maintained and is a potential expansion facility if needed. Managing facilities in a small system is in many ways more challenging than large ones, and we’ve done a pretty good job considering the major enrollment swings. But it’s important to understand that there are facilities requirements imposed on us by the bureaucratic state government that we must comply with, and meeting these requirements is hardly about quenching a desire for fancy buildings.
I guess my response comes down to this – there are some smart and valuable contributors here who keep challenging CSD to be creative and unique in our approach to dealing with the enrollment growth trend. What rubs me the wrong way is that we ARE being creative and unique in dealing with all of this. The enrollment committee, composed of lots of smart and experienced community _volunteers_, put together an excellent synopsis of the situation and our options. People with very little exposure to the process are offering a lot of back seat driving without understanding that a huge amount of creativity, hard work, and thought has already occurred. I have reviewed the output of their work to date and I’m confident we’ve got good info and good ideas. But don’t take my word for it – check it all out for yourselves.
I’ve vacillated a bit on this, but I think you’re right TeeRuss – and I also think that a good number of folks around town, who may not necessarily be posting on blogs, agree as well.