District staff recommends postponing construction of 2 new schools

Funds can drive other improvements; pending sales tax vote is new start.

The DeKalb County School District intends to postpone the construction of two new schools in an effort to save money.

The district planned to use money from its education special local option sales tax to fund the building of two new schools to address expected overcrowding. Early work had already started — and was then paused — for a new elementary school in the Dunwoody-Chamblee area. And the district was planning to build a Cross Keys Middle School in the coming years.

But because of shifting enrollment projections, district staff is recommending the board postpone building the schools using the E-SPLOST funds. It’s part of an effort to close out as many projects as possible within the next three years, ahead of when voters could renew the sales tax for 2027-2032.

“Let’s use that money now to finish all the other commitments we know we need to do,” Chief Operations Officer Erick Hofstetter said. “That way, when we hit SPLOST VII, we’re not bringing any of this into that. We can start fresh.”

The school board will vote on some of the changes in the coming months but was briefed on what to expect at a meeting Thursday. Overall, the board was supportive of the staff’s efforts to move the most projects along. The two projects would be among the first considered for the next chunk of sales tax money.

Before the pandemic, the district planned for the new 950seat elementary school to alleviate overcrowding at schools north of I-85. But more recent enrollment data shows that the schools in that area have room for nearly 1,000 students.

The district cut ties with its contractor a year ago because it was paying the contractor monthly while no work was being completed.

The same enrollment changes hold true for the middle school, which was meant to alleviate overcrowding in schools in the northern part of the county. But after the pandemic, enrollment declined. The district projects the middle schools there will be below capacity within a few years.

“Conceptually, I’m good with all of this,” said board member Whitney McGinniss, who represents some schools north of I-85, including Cross Keys High. “I appreciate the data-driven approach. This is exactly what we as a board were asking for. There will be more questions, but we wanted to see the enrollment data, and there it is.”

The district also intended to spend roughly $26 million on the installation of sprinkler systems at all schools in an effort to save on insurance, but it will cut those projects because the state fire marshal does not require sprinklers for most schools.

The district intended to spend another $29.6 million on the new elementary school, and had budgeted $90 million for the new middle school. That money will now help fund a long list of other projects the district has committed to — such as the modernization of Druid Hills High and Cross Keys High, the new Dresden Elementary and the new Sequoyah Middle and Sequoyah High.

“I’m at the point now where many of our projects, I can’t move forward unless I get that money,” Hofstetter said.

Facilities maintenance has long been an issue in DeKalb. State officials intervened and threatened to withhold funding if poor conditions at Druid Hills High weren’t fixed. Facilities problems were one of the reasons board members gave for voting to fire Cheryl Watson-Harris from her role as superintendent in 2022. And the district is paying $1 million to audit its spending of a decade’s worth of sales tax money.

It’s also planning to spend the next several years working on student assignment planning — a process in which district leaders will look at attendance zones, access to special programs and enrollment to make decisions about DeKalb’s future. Changes like these to its building plans are a part of that, too, said Executive Director of Student Assignment Sarita Smith.

“In a lot of cases, people make decisions for what is happening now,” Smith said. “We need to make decisions and recommendations for what is projected to happen by 2030, in the next five and 10 years.”