Druid Hills - Schools (Atlanta: condos, selling a house, buying)

[jeoff]

Originally Posted by arjay57

Gee, is it legal to cherry pick that way? It sure doesn't seem very fair.

Pretty much the way annexation works--recently, a wealthy Morningside subdivision (Edmund Park in the DH cluster) petitioned to leave unincorporated Dekalb County to join COA, and COA accepted. This would be that --on steroids. If I was among the ones left behind, I would be upset, and try to fight it if I could--fair or not.

[arjay57]

Originally Posted by jeoff

Pretty much the way annexation works--recently, a wealthy Morningside subdivision (Edmund Park in the DH cluster) petitioned to leave unincorporated Dekalb County to join COA, and COA accepted. This would be that --on steroids. If I was among the ones left behind, I would be upset, and try to fight it if I could--fair or not.

How far east would this Emory/CDC annexation go if it happens? Would it reach all the way to Claremont?

[bu2]

Originally Posted by Saintmarks

I would say the future depends on if proposals to annex into Atlanta go thru. I would say it would be better for the area schools if it did, but don't live there and don't get to vote.

It could also make them worse or they could be closed (if only 2 schools were brought over there might not be enough to support a HS).

[bu2]

Originally Posted by arjay57

A few years ago I would have said the same thing, LD. However, I've seen progress in some DeKalb schools, and a bit of slippage in some in the COA.

However, I'll be the first to admit that's anecdotal and only pertains to some schools I have personal knowledge of.

I don't see any evidence of APS doing any better than DeKalb. The North Atlanta schools keep having crises with their principals.

[bu2]

Originally Posted by N54E90

I live in Druid Hills with my wife and kid. We are going to be having a second soon, with the first closing in on school age. We are going to need more space and will need to either add on to our current house or move. Which option we pursue is ultimately going to be driven by the quality of public schools. We are in the Fernbank Elementary attendance zone. I am comfortable with that school, but not too knowledgeable regarding the schools it feeds into. I get the sense from poking around on the internet that neither Druid Hills High or Middle are particularly strong, which leads me to my question: Where are Druid Hills Middle and High going to be in 10 years or so? Are these schools improving? Any thoughts from those with insight or experience would be much appreciated.

6 years is a long time. You don't know how the schools will go. You also might switch jobs. Lots can happen.

Fernbank is excellent. The new principal (the old one left after many years) will probably do well. She is certainly well regarded.

DHMS and DHHS are problematic. They do have pretty good advanced classes, but if you don't get in the advanced classes its not very good. Contrary to what you might expect, many (not all) of the advanced students do stay public while the middle of the road students are relatively more likely to go private.

DHMS was pretty bad right after Avondale MS closed and those students were primarily moved to the Druid Hills cluster (Avondale was the poorest, lowest performing MS in the district). However, they seem to be raising expectations and moving in the right direction. Slowly.

[bu2]

Originally Posted by N54E90

I live in Druid Hills with my wife and kid. We are going to be having a second soon, with the first closing in on school age. We are going to need more space and will need to either add on to our current house or move. Which option we pursue is ultimately going to be driven by the quality of public schools. We are in the Fernbank Elementary attendance zone. I am comfortable with that school, but not too knowledgeable regarding the schools it feeds into. I get the sense from poking around on the internet that neither Druid Hills High or Middle are particularly strong, which leads me to my question: Where are Druid Hills Middle and High going to be in 10 years or so? Are these schools improving? Any thoughts from those with insight or experience would be much appreciated.

A separate consideration is how much trouble and expense an addition would be. It can be a massive project. And if you are in the historic district you may be limited in what you can do.

[red92s]

Originally Posted by arjay57

How far east would this Emory/CDC annexation go if it happens? Would it reach all the way to Claremont?

The newly proposed CDC and Emory annexations are pretty tightly confined to those specific properties and does not spill over into surrounding residential and commercial areas. That's not to say there won't be efforts to "bootstrap" additional areas onto the Emory/CDC initiatives, but Emory's annexation petition I think only covers it's own property. You can see from the map below that if all of Emory's property was to be annexed, doing the CDC as well makes a lot of sense because it's essentially a doughnut hole in the middle. Emory's property does run all the way to to Clairmont.

http://www.commissionerrader.com/rea...mory_Annex.pdf

Related coverage:
http://www.atlantaloop.com/dekalb-co...domino-effect/

[jeoff]

Originally Posted by arjay57

I understand they might become part of the Atlanta school system, LD, but how would that make them better (or worse)?

It's my understanding that Fernbank is already crackerjack and that Druid Hills is basically comparable to Grady.

Grady and Druid Hills High are not that far apart, but Inman Middle is rated much higher than DHMS, and the last time I checked, scored a tiny bit higher than City of Decatur's Renfroe MS on standardized test scores. (Grady draws from one additional elementary school than does Inman-which may account for the difference between the high and middle schools).

[Saintmarks]

Originally Posted by arjay57

Gee, is it legal to cherry pick that way? It sure doesn't seem very fair.

Any annexation by a city must make sense for the city and not as a proposal of fairness on the way an adjacent county has drawn their school boundary lines. I would also think that adding a larger area of Druid Hills as has been proposed together with over crowding in some of the nearby Atlanta city schools.... that IF a large scale annexation came to pass and IF the Atlanta school system did take over some former DeKalb schools, that there would be some realignment within the APS. Would think that both Jackson and Grady attendance zones would be affected.

[jeoff]

Originally Posted by bu2

I don't see any evidence of APS doing any better than DeKalb. The North Atlanta schools keep having crises with their principals.

For the most part, the difference is due to wealth. There is a lot of money going into the east side of Atlanta--especially throughout the Grady Cluster, and those folks with money are sending their kids to the public schools--with that sort of wind at your back, it's really hard not to improve. The Druid Hills school zone does not have that advantage.