As the AJC reports this morning, last night the DeKalb School Board took a final vote on closing eight county schools and redistricting those affected.

The vote was almost a year in the making. Board members made several attempts to pass new attendance boundaries but backed off because of criticism and political pressure.

More than 200 parents and community members showed up to protest the most recent round of changes, but the plan passed with a 7-2 margin.

…The plan approved Monday closes eight schools: Atherton, Glen Haven, Gresham Park, Peachcrest, Medlock and Sky Haven elementary schools, Avondale Middle School and Avondale High School.

Some residents in areas just outside the Decatur city limits aren’t protesting, but rejoicing, as many of the homes in the Forrest Hills and Midway Woods neighborhoods were rezoned into the well-regarded “Druid Hills Cluster” – which includes Avondale Elementary School, Shamrock Middle School and Druid Hills High School.  This was “due to hundreds of emails, going to meetings”, according to one Forrest Hills resident.  So satisfied with the change, they exclaimed “I would vote against being annexed [by Decatur] now.”.

Students who formally attended Medlock Elementary will now be split amongst Laurel Ridge, McLendon and Avondale Elementary schools.  (See page 8 of this presentation for a map of the change.)

As promised at last night’s meeting, the city of Decatur has posted its annexation report and map on their website.

Click here to read the full 6 page report.

Click here to view the map (pdf). The area under consideration for annexation is in the darker red, while the city of Avondale Estates is in blue. This map is much larger than the previous one found in the CDS report allowing for a close look at individual streets.

Ask and ye shall receive!

Yesterday a commenter asked if a map existed showing the city’s proposed north and east annexation.  Well, thanks to a link found on the Oakhurst Message Board, I found this presentation by Rosser International given to the school board regarding the annexation, which shows not only the proposed new boundaries of the city, but also a breakdown of how many students live in each area.

While this map (click it for an even larger version or go to the presentation)  shows the expansion north and east as described in the GoDeKalb article, it also shows an annexation to the northeast, up DeKalb Industrial to N. Decatur and east on Ponce to DeKalb Industrial Way (where the street where Paddywax and Wag-a-Lot reside).

This presentation seems to indicate that the school system is already many steps in to analyzing this issue and the rest of up are playing catch up.

A lot of interesting info on our neighborhoods in this presentation.  Be sure to check it out!