With final approval of the plans for Decatur’s new 5th Avenue 4/5 Academy going before the city commission tonight, it will soon be time to tackle another key component of adding another school to the K-5, red-bricky mix: reconfiguration of the school “attendance zones.”

When will this happen and how will this work?  Well, as some of you more devout CSDers may have noticed, Superintendent Phyllis Edwards referenced the process in her recent letter regarding pre-K placement at Clairemont Elementary…

Over the summer, we will be working with Georgia State University to develop three options for redrawing the zoning lines.  This is in preparation for presenting options to the community, the SLTs, and the School Board.  I hope to have plans available in the fall [2010] so a decision can be made early in the year and families will know which school their child is zoned for in the 2011-2012 school year and beyond.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out.

In deciding to build a 4/5 Academy at 5th Avenue, one of the key concerns stated by the Reconfiguration Committee and the School Board was maintaining racial diversity within the school system.  A key component of the 2003 reconfiguration was extending Oakhurst Elementary’s attendance zone up into northwest Decatur to diversify the student population.  Turning Glennwood Elementary into a K-3 again creates a “school-heavy” east side of Decatur, with Oakhurst Elementary the only K-3 west of the unofficial Clairemont/McDonough split.

Assuming the preference that most kids go to the school closest to their respective homes, northwest Decatur again becomes the wild-card.

And before anyone yells “Free Westchester!”, note that the Superintendent’s letter also relays that she will be talking with the School Board about starting a community discussion regarding whether and how to reopen the Scott Boulevard school.

Residents who signed a letter to the City School of Decatur administration say they are perplexed.

In what has become a public volley of lengthy letters, the latest response from the group of Decatur residents who first submitted concerns about the size of the 5th Avenue school site say they are still waiting for a response “on the substance of our letter”. Letter drafters Lisa Coronado Mauldin and Don Calder wrote in their response…

Our letter never identified or promoted the Beacon Hill site as an alternative to Glennwood’s or Fifth Avenue’s, but Dr. Edwards expounded on all the reasons why she and her experts believed Beacon Hill was a bad idea.

At its core, our letter stands for the following: In light of newly-identified/acknowledged site limitations, CSD should pause for a fully informed, transparent and inclusive review of whether a new 4/5 Academy at Fifth Avenue represents a substantial and lasting improvement over Glennwood.  Glennwood is experiencing considerable strain due to overcrowding. CSD is executing a plan to spend $8 million (plus interest) building its largest elementary school, in effect, on its smallest site.

Dr. Edwards’ Christmas Day letter did spend considerable time elaborating on problems redeveloping the old Beacon Hill school site, which were discussed in length on this website, but not specifically referenced in the letter.  In direct relation to the size of 5th Avenue’s acreage, Edwards had this to say…

Read the rest of this entry »

The AJC’s April Hunt preempts the rest of Decatur’s know-it-alls with a great look into the city commission’s final vote this fall on the potential 5th Ave school renovation to accommodate a projected rise in school enrollment.

(Preachy aside: Why do I call it “great”?  Because all too often local pieces generated by the mainstream media seem geared toward entertaining readers in other communities rather than being an actual resource for affected residents.  April shows her prowess for Decatur inside-baseball with this one.)

Speaking of insiders, a couple city insiders have mentioned this unique feature about Decatur in past comment on DM: the city, not the school system owns school property.  Therefore, the city commission gets the final say about whether CSD can renovate vacant 5th Avenue to accommodate the city’s 4/5 academy.

And while my post title intentionally draws you in with a quality of looming uncertainty, the commission sounds unified in its support of the proposal in Ms Hunt’s article.  Not a huge surprise considering a 5th Ave renovation has always been “the city’s” preference.

The vote sounds like it could happen some time next month.

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.