The CSD school board is scheduled to vote on the much-discussed reconfiguration issue next Tuesday, June 9th.

In her note to the board motioning to approve Option 13, superintendent Dr. Phyllis Edwards references the general support that renovating 5th Ave has among the reconfiguration committee, teachers and parents that spoke at the listening sessions.  She also states…

I estimate that if you make the decision in June, it will still take two years until the building is ready. In the meantime, we will add portables as we see fit. In the following school year, we may have to explore other temporary options.

By doing a lease purchase for $10 million dollars, Fifth Avenue can be renovated and the remaining dollars spent on renovating RMS, which sorely needs attention.

Barring some unforeseen challenge or circumstance, the vote next Tuesday (6:30p @ Westchester) should be the final say in this matter.

You can read the Superintendent’s full letter after the jump… Read the rest of this entry »

Over on her CSD reconfiguration blog, CSD Mom has been writing for a while about efforts to get the school board to consider a parent survey regarding reconfiguration, which would complement a survey already completed among teachers.  However, the school board didn’t taken any action on that front, so CSD Mom created her own survey and asked parents to participate.

Well, the survey is now closed and the 288 votes have been tallied and with 29% of the vote, Option 6 (which opts from the old K-5 model instead of K-3 and a 4/5 academy) won out over Option 13 that received 26% of the vote.

Now it should be said that this is an unscientific survey and CSD Mom hasn’t been shy about promoting Option 6 over all the others over at her site.  Even so, this seemingly strong support among parents, who made up 84% of the survey vote, for Option 6 shows an interesting and under-reported element to the reconfiguration struggle.  Option 6 would effectively dismantle the 4/5 academy model that has long been heralded by administrators, teachers, and a good number of parents.  Be that as it may, there seems to be a good contingent of parents out there who would rather revert back to a less expensive K-5 system, than spend money to completely renovate 5th Ave so it could become the city’s 4/5 Academy.

Personally, I’m still unsure which option to support.  However, I remain wary to assume that the city’s student population will continue to rise indefinitely into the future…without annexation of course.

CSD Mom’s Reconfiguration Blog tips us off to the fact that the CSD Reconfiguration Committee has recommended Option #13 (renovate 5th Avenue into 4/5 academy) to the school board.

Sure enough, the recommendation is now up on the CSD website (pdf) and it looks like #13 won in a landslide.

As the letter states, after Option 13, both the Renfroe addition and the Westchester renovation were the second choice, while further expanding Glennwood to accomidate the growing 4/5 academy ranked third.

As previously stated, Option 13 renovates 5th Avenue Elementary to house the city’s 4/5 academy and returns Glennwood to a K-3.  Keeping IB and racial diversity were the key concerns leading to the decision, along with maintaining current grade configurations and building a “state-of-the-art facility.”   The stated main concerns with a 5th Ave renovation have been the cost (around $10 million) and the non-central location.

The Board of Ed meets next month to vote on the committee’s recommendation.

Garrett comments over on CSD Mom’s Reconfiguration blog that the most vocal support by parents at last night’s listening session was for Option#13, which calls for converting vacant 5th Avenue Elementary into the city’s new 4/5 academy.

Among the 13 options, #13 is the most costly upfront at more than $9 million to execute.

What do you think?  Is 5th Ave as 4/5 the best solution?

I’m still unsure of what to support.  And I don’t think I’m alone.

The AJC has sifted through the education portion of the federal stimulus package, which passed the House last night, and has broken out how much each Georgia school district would receive.

As it currently stands, here’s what City Schools of Decatur would get over the two year period…

2009

Title 1:  $224,200

Construction: $732,300

IDEA:  $275,300

2010

Title 1: $224,200

IDEA: $333,700

2009-2010 Total: $1,789,600

The AJC explains “Title 1″ and IDEA in their glossary as follows…

“Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA): A federal law saying schools must provide free programs to meet the needs of students with disabilities. Their disabilities range from physical impairments such as blindness to emotional or behavioral handicaps to specific learning problems that affect one’s ability to process information.

Title I: Federal funds that target schools and districts with a large number of students living in poverty.”

That $732,300 for construction would be just a splash in the bucket of the potential Renfroe addition/renovation, which the Superintendent recently estimated would cost between $10-12 million.  The 5th Avenue renovation was estimated between $5-6 million.

Trolling the CSD agenda website – which can be kind of confusing to the uninitiated, but has lots of great info – I found this letter that the superintendent recently wrote to Rep. Hank Johnson soliciting a portion of any future federal infrastructure money to renovate Renfroe and 5th Avenue Elementary.

As many of us are already aware, the Renfroe renovation would be used to build a new 4th/5th wing and renovate much of the current structure. According to the letter, 5th Avenue Elementary would be used as a “combination building which would house a Career Tech Academy and an Early Childhood Learning Center.”

UPDATE: Click here to view the conceptual plans for the Renfroe expansion and the conceptual plan for 5th Ave.