DeKalb school boundaries, attendance zones due a fresh look

Comprehensive redo could shuffle students around.

The DeKalb County School District is gearing up to evaluate school attendance zones, Superintendent Devon Horton said in a recent speech.

DeKalb’s student assignment department will be reviewing school boundaries and developing new assignment plans — meaning there could be changes as to which students attend which schools and how students are selected to attend schools with special programs.

The district has never before created a comprehensive student assignment plan, Horton said during his State of the District address on Thursday.

“Because it’s hard. It’s challenging,” he said. “But we have to break through that to build a better DeKalb.”

The school board is able to alter attendance areas based on factors like geographic proximity to a school, a school’s instructional capacity and its projected enrollment.

The district’s comprehensive master plan, unveiled in 2022 to serve as a road map for the next decade in DeKalb

ools, recommended redistricting throughout the county by 2030.

The plan predicted that 23 schools will be over 100% capacity in 2031, and 27 schools will be filled to less than 70% capacity. That means slightly less than half of DeKalb’s schools will be significantly over- or underused. The plan suggested the consolidation of some elementary schools, the creation of K-8 facilities in some areas and the rebuilding of other schools, coupled with redrawing school boundaries as necessary.

Though construction and maintenance projects have been moving forward in the district, the board and superintendent have seldom discussed the broader plan for school facilities publicly since the board vote to change its focus.

orton said at a school board meeting this month that staff is finalizing a list of projects ranked by importance for every school.