School system may build 2 Learning Centers

Decatur Superintendent David Dude recently said he’s still interested in property along the southern edge of the ongoing Avondale MARTA development on College Avenue.

In May City Schools Decatur put a contract on three acres along East Trinity Place to build a new Early Childhood Learning Center, in three to five years.

But Dude said he is still talking with Columbia Ventures, which is developing the Avondale/MARTA project and that eventually the district may require two Early Childhood Learning Centers.

Purchasing that property is complex and Dude isn’t sure when or if it will happen.

Half of the two acres is owned by MARTA, though leased for 99 years by Columbia Ventures, with the other half owned by DeKalb County.

There is no immediate need for the property. CSD still has to build a new school on Talley Street, the final project to be financed by a $75 million general obligation bond approved by voters two years ago.

But Dude says that a new round of planning for construction projects after 2020-21 will begin in early fall 2018.

That will likely include one or maybe two ECLCs along with renovating College Heights—current site for the ECLC—into a much larger K-2 school.

As of this month K-12 enrollment is up 292 students from last year, or 5.5 percent, compared with an 8.1 percent increase the previous year and a 7.3 percent increase the year before that. BILL BANKS FOR THE AJC