DeKalb County, GA, May 9, 2016 – by Trey Benton – DeKalb County Board of Education (BOE) is taking a major step in dealing with overcrowding in the Cross Keys Cluster. During their Monday, May 9th meeting, the DeKalb BOE announced agreements with the City of Brookhaven and the Georgia State Properties Commission to acquire 11.2 acres at Skyland Park for a new elementary school.

Included in the $7.5 million total purchase price, DeKalb Schools will get Skyland Center, formerly Skyland Elementary School that houses a State of Georgia Vital Records facility, as well as Brookhaven’s Skyland Park.

“This is a major step in our long-term plan to relieve the serious over-crowding in the Cross Keys Cluster,” said Superintendent Dr. R. Stephen Green. “The situation in the Cross Keys Cluster where we have more than 110 portable classrooms is intolerable and will not be allowed to continue.”

DeKalb County Schools says the new elementary school, which should be completed in Fall of 2019, will provide relief for several existing elementary schools including Dresden, Montclair, and Woodward. Once the final agreements are reached, a new 900-seat, $22 million elementary school is scheduled to be built on the site.

On Tuesday, Brookhaven City Councilmembers are scheduled to vote on the agreement during the 7:00PM City Council meeting. The State Properties Commission is scheduled to sign the agreement within a week, and the School District is expected to close on these properties with the State and the City in January 2017.

The intergovernmental agreement with the City of Brookhaven and the State of Georgia is as follows. The School District will:

Acquire the former Skyland Elementary School site from the State of Georgia, which now houses the State Vital Records Office for $2.8 million for 5.3 acres

Transfer 4.17 acres of the acquired State property to the City of Brookhaven

Purchase the existing Skyland Park of 10.6 acres for $4.7 million from the City of Brookhaven

Of the $4.7 million the City will receive for Skyland Park, roughly $2.3 million will be spent on demolishing Skyland Center and building a brand new park on the property, in accordance with the City’s Parks and Recreation Master Plan. The remainder will be spent on greenspace and park acquisition in other areas of the City.

Back in March, the BOE unanimously approved a “temporary” redistricting of over 1,700 students in the Cross Keys Cluster that shuffles an estimated 1,469 Elementary School students along with 232 High School students to different schools for the 2016-2017 school year. (Read more here)

DeKalb BOE Board Chair, Dr. Melvin Johnson said, “The Board has already implemented a short-term redistricting plan that will provide some relief. We are committed to providing safe, healthy learning environments for all our students.”

After months of discussion as to the eventual fate of the Skyland Center, and plans for redistricting to occur literally throughout the Cross Keys Cluster, the new elementary school will eventually provide much-needed relief.

The schools in the Cross Keys Cluster are: Cary Reynolds ES, Cross Keys HS, Dresden ES, Montclair ES, Oakcliff Theme, Sequoyah MS, Woodward ES – each of them with serious overcrowding issues that are only expected to get worse.