DeKalb County School District officials plan to close or consolidate at least 30 aging and underpopulated schools in the next three to four years, and two elementary schools, Dunwoody’s Vanderlyn and Chesnut, may be part of that plan.
DCSD District 1 representative Andrew Ziffer, at the Dunwoody Homeowners Association meeting on July 27, told attendees that under-capacity, small, and aging facilities are draining the system’s coffers.
“We have 130 schools now [which includes many underpopulated facilities], and we need to have 100 schools with 1,000 students each in them,” he said. “We’re going to be closing 30 schools in the next three to four years.”
Ziffer specifically mentioned that students at two Dunwoody-area schools – Vanderlyn, which was built in 1973, and Chesnut, in 1968 – could be folded into recently built Dunwoody and Austin elementary schools or consolidated into a newly constructed facility. However, he emphasized the district is considering all possibilities and no concrete decisions have been made.
“Chesnut and Vanderlyn are beyond their lifespan,” he said. “It would be better to funnel students to Austin or Dunwoody Elementary School.”
Any significant infrastructure expenditures to schools like Kingsley Elementary will remain open for the the foreseeable future, he said.
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According to statistics on the DeKalb County School’s website, Austin Elementary’s capacity is 984 students with an enrollment of 802, Chesnut has the capacity for 456 students with 553 in attendance, DES, with a capacity of 960, has 790 enrolled, and Vanderlyn has the capacity of 456, with a current enrollment of 553.
Ziffer said more than $1 billion in needs have been identified for capital improvements, but only about $140 million is generated annually by the one-penny Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax.
“If you do the napkin math, we are never going to catch up,” he said. “We may have to look at bonds at some point down the road.”
Other options to help tighten up the school’s finances involve selling the system-owned surplus properties around the county.
Ziffer also briefly discussed, during question from attendees, the school calendar, which, both last and this year, have the last day of classes occurring after Memorial Day.
He said absenteeism after Memorial Day is significant, and that the board would be investigating changing the calendar but probably not in time for the 2025-26 school year.
In other action, the DHA board:
• heard that the 2025 4th of July parade operated in the black, thanks to increased sponsorships. The board did not discuss an incident during the parade that involved injuries to several adults and children and the subsequent arrest of two people who were driving a truck in the parade;
• revealed dates and venues for its newly created social events, including Aug. 27 at Vino Venue and Sept. 16 at Dunwoody Tavern;
• revealed that the DHA’s website, currently under construction, will launch in the fall.
