Enrollment Growth Strong in Decatur City School System

With the start of school exactly one week away, students are continuing to enroll in Decatur city schools at a frenetic pace. But officials aren’t sure if this year’s 9 percent (and climbing) enrollment jump is because of neighboring systems’ troubles, the economy, or just a one-time occurrence.

“We don’t know if our increased enrollment is due to troubles in surrounding public schools,” School Superintendent Dr. Phyllis Edwards said. “We are going to pull a report which will tell us if students are coming from another public school.”

The city of Atlanta school system is struggling to retain its recognized accreditation, and DeKalb County’s system also has been under investigation.

“We also wonder if due to the economy, people are looking for another option rather than keeping their children in private school,” Edwards added.

The biggest area of growth has occurred around , a school originally projected to have 85 kindergarteners but will instead house more than 100. Earlier this summer, parents wanting their children to enroll in Oakhurst were requested to register at or elementaries.

Oakhurst’s overcrowding came even though the city built its first new public school in more than 30 years with the . And while the old 4/5 Academy’s location has become the city’s fourth elementary school – – redrawn district lines made Oakhurst’s district smaller, a factor which has contributed to the overcrowding.

In response to community pressure, officials increased class sizes to  25 and hired two paraprofessionals who also are certified teachers, to help with student population.

“Everyone who wanted to originally get into Oakhurst has been able to get in,” said Julie Rhame, who represents District 2, including Oakhurst, on the Decatur city school board. “But to add an additional classroom to Oakhurst, that’d be $60,000 for the trailer. It would have to be placed on grass, which would require another $80,000 for stormwater drainage capabilities. We’d need a teacher and a para-professional with the appropriate salary and benefits, and then we’d need to outfit the trailer with equipment and such, so all total that’s about $200,000.

"At this point, anyone new who registers for Oakhurst kindergarten will not be able to get in as it is completely full."

“It’s just been a huge enrollment surge,” said Caleb Hellerman, an Oakhurst resident who was originally told his kindergarten-age daughter would have to attend Winnonna Elementary. “Talking to realtors, it just seems Oakhurst is growing faster than other neighborhoods in Decatur.”

“It’s been mindboggling to see,” Rhame said. “I was on the Oakhurst parent coalition back in the early 2000s when we had to go door-to-door to keep Oakhurst open. Now, people are moving into the area in droves.

"We were anticipating a 5 percent increase over last year given our growing number of younger children in the city as well as move ins. But the high volume of new families moving into Decatur this summer has resulted in the increase.  

“But we will be diligent in checking residency to make sure folks are legit.”

Edwards also said the system hasn’t seen any dip in enrollment as a result of Georgia’s new immigration laws, though the legislation is currently stalled in court. “We do not have a significant population of Hispanic children,” Edwards said. “We have noticed a slight increase in students needing English For Speakers of Other Languages services but these children can come from a variety of places.”