A blurb from Bill Banks hidden in the AJC’s County by County news from yesterday…

Decatur school board chairman Marc Wisniewski admitted that city commissioners are “not on board, they’re on the fence,” about getting a $59.5 million bond referendum on the Nov. 5 ballot. The referendum would finance extensive renovations to Decatur High and Renfroe Middle schools. Regarding a joint Aug. 5 meeting between the board and commissioners, he said, “[the board] will have to some educating, some convincing.” He added that if the referendum is delayed to next year, both schools would eventually need trailers or have to go to split sessions.

This is also what we’ve been hearing.

This is an idea that’s been dropped multiple times here on DM over the last couple weeks.  Bill Banks at the AJC got an answer.  As reported in Tuesday’s County-by-County recap,

Superintendent Phyllis Edwards “admitted the former DeVry University land in east Decatur is an “excellent location,” but added it’s not a current possibility for new school construction.”

This week, City Schools of Decatur released their latest enrollment levels and projections for next year as part of Superintendent Phyllis Edwards’ letter to the board for next week’s meeting.

As you can see above, enrollment levels are projected to increase by nearly 400 students from this year to next.  Then, yesterday, the Bill Banks of AJC reported that the Superintendent ” wants a joint meeting with the city government discussing the revival of three large apartment projects and their effect on city schools.”

According to the paper, “two developments totaling a projected 435 units figure to break ground next year, with a third, on the Callaway property, approximately two years away. Decatur schools anticipate total enrollment doubling to over 6,000 by 2018, but Edwards said these new apartments “don’t figure into our projections.” ”

An enrollment of 6,000 would be higher than CSD has ever encountered in its history. (See CSD growth chart from 2012 below.)

I’m guessing the 2018 projection assumes no deviations from current growth.