School Board Grants Courtesy Tuition To Gateway Residents
Decatur Metro | December 11, 2014 | 9:12 amThe AJC and Decaturish report that the city Schools of Decatur has come to an agreement with the Decatur Housing Authority that will provide between 20-30 Gateway Manor students with courtesy tuition and transportation costs while their homes at Gateway Manor are renovated over the next year and a half.
The school board approved the agreement on Tuesday night.
So glad they found a way to make this work!
Needed some good news around here this week.
Thanks to everyone who made this happen–CSD, School Board, DHA, community advocates, and great Gateway students who spoke up. BTW, if I understood the Decaturish report correctly, the interagency agreement has CSD providing the courtesy tuition, similar to what is provided to staff, and DHA provides the transportation stipend.
YES!!!
Awesome. Definitely the right thing to do!
Best news I’ve heard all week. Way to make your community proud, CSD! A very worthy use of tax dollars.
The right thing to do.
So happy to read this!!
Lucky kids – that would not have been fun for them to have to switch schools like that. Plus they get free transportation – not a bad deal.
Not necessarily free. There’s a stipend from DHA. Whether that covers the entire cost of transportation is not clear. It probably depends on where the family has to move, whether it already owns a car or not, whether they are on a bus/train route, whether they can carpool with another family, etc.
+1.
Don’t kid yourself. The Gateway residents are in for some short term pain. Two household moves in less than two years plus figuring out how to get the kids to/from school every day and other logistical headaches (how many will find an apartment within walking distance of a MARTA station, grocery store, drug store, etc like they have now?). There is a pot of gold at the end though – a brand new apartment.
Great job CSD and DHA!
A big thank you to CSD and DHA!
Plus a shout out to Bill Banks, who covers Decatur for the AJC. It was his article that was picked up by DM that got people engaged. I think it helped the staff and school board to know that public opinion was solidly behind doing right by the kids. Thanks too to DM for picking up the story and putting it in a place where we all could see it.
My how the media tables have turned, where items now need to be rescued from the obscurity of the broadsheet daily and reposted on a blog where there’s an expectation people will actually see it!
I heard that CSD is considering sending certain special needs students to Dekalb County schools to save costs. Does anyone know the status of that decision?
No but I am totally against it. Severely intellectually impaired high school students were sent to Columbia High School for a while and I heard some horrible stories. If you find out this is real, start publicizing it far and wide, because residents need to speak up about it and parents of those children need to prepare themselves. CSD is growing, not shrinking, so it should have its own program consistent with its mission, values, and standards.
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