The DeKalb County Board of Education approved the district’s 2016-17 proposed school organization plan last week. The document, required by the state to receive money from Georgia’s capital outlay program, is a list of schools the district plans on operating four years from now.

The plan includes SPLOST 4 projects as approved by DeKalb County voters. It outlines adding capacity to the Coralwood School and Diagnostic Center, repurposing the new Wadsworth Elementary School at the Knollwood facility, and rebuilding Austin, Fernbank, Pleasantdale, Rockbridge, Smoke Rise, Peachcrest and Gresham Park elementary schools.

The plan also includes rebuilding McNair Middle School and Chamblee High School, repurposing a comprehensive art school at Avondale Middle School., and adding capacity at Henderson Middle School and Martin Luther King, Miller Grove, Redan and Southwest DeKalb high schools.

The board amended the proposed school organization to remove plans of establishing a theme school at Chapel Hill Middle School and extending Bob Mathis, Chapel Hill and Rainbow elementary schools to pre-K through sixth-grade.

“The creation of a theme school was removed so that the community can have more discussion about the matter,” said Stephen Wilkins, chief operating officer for the DeKalb County School District. “Over the years, the community has expressed a demand for another theme school in the southern part of the district, but the challenge is site location. The community wants more conversation about where and when such a school is created.”

Next month, representatives from the Georgia Department of Education will conduct site visits of the facilities DeKalb plans on operating in the 2016-17 school year.

“The list of schools is reviewed to determine what facility construction projects qualify for a percentage of reimbursable funding from the state,” Wilkins said.

Following the visit, the DeKalb school district staff will use the proposed school organization to draft a five-year local facilities plan to bring before the state board for approval. Wilkins described the local facilities plan as “an application document for supplemental capital funding from the state.”

What’s next?
The state Department of Education will conduct a site visit in February to review the facilities listed in the proposed school organization plan.