DeKalb Parents Raise Concerns About Equal Treatment

DeKalb mom Kim Ault doesn't mince words.

After hearing DeKalb County School System's redistricting and school closure recommendations, she wants administrators to consider something else in its plan: leveling the playing field for magnet programs on the southside of the county.

With the announced closure of Avondale High School, it frees up space for the DeKalb School of the Arts. DSA currently shares its space and is not moving or closing as part of the recommended plan.

And it raises hopes for some parents, including Ault, who want to see an arts complex considered for grades K-12.

Ault would like to see the return of DeKalb Elementary School of the Arts to Avondale Estates, the city where it once operated until it was uprooted several years ago to Hooper Alexander, one of the oldest schools in the system, circa 1935.

DESA serves grades K-7 and 350 students, and once operated out of Avondale Elementary. 

Parents, including LaTasha Walker, must drive by Avondale Elementary and head south into Atlanta to get to Hooper. 

"My daughter asks me, 'why was I kicked out," Walker told the school board during the public comments. "We ask that the considerations you make for one magnet school you make for all. The original move makes my daughter feel excluded."

Ault said an arts cluster will help DESA obtain more funding. She also questions why DESA was moved to Hooper in the first place.

"Anything that gives our children hope is being snatched away from them," Ault said after hearing Tyson's proposal. "When we expect more from our children, we get more. They moved our children from very prime property."

Ault thinks that if careful considerations aren't made for the redistricting or the 2020 vision, "we just might have an educational Katrina on our hands."

Of all the school closures and redistricting, DeKalb Interim Superintendent Ramona Tyson said, "This is a significant first step."