Thank you, Stan Jester, for sharing this in your FactChecker Blog.
Statement from DeKalb Schools Superintendent Regarding the DeKalb County School System’s participation in the TAD for the Development of Assembly:
“The DeKalb County School District has been asked to consider partnering with the DeKalb County Government and the City of Doraville to create a Tax Allocation District (TAD) that includes the former GM assembly plant and portions of the City of Doraville. The TAD would produce approximately $247 million in tax revenues that would be used to fund infrastructure improvements such as roads, a tunnel, and other public projects. The debt including debt service of approximately $600 million for these improvements would be paid for with tax revenue above what is collected currently in the area.
I have several serious reservations about committing school resources over the course of the 25 years of the TAD for this project.
1. Our core business is teaching and learning, not speculative, unpredictable real estate projects.
2. Two of the three current TADs in DeKalb County have not succeeded in meeting their tax revenue projections. The Kensington and Briarcliff TADs have decreased in tax digest value since their inception with Kensington showing a decrease in excess of 20 percent.
3. After several years, the ongoing inability of the City of Atlanta and the Atlanta Public Schools to fulfill their intergovernmental agreement based on a TAD for the financing of the Beltline project demonstrates how unforeseen pitfalls can be costly to the local school system.
4. The school tax digest for the Doraville TAD would be fixed for 25 years with a best case scenario of nine more additional years before the School District would recoup taxes that had been given up.
We are expected to be good stewards of our resources and I think making a 25-year commitment to freezing the school tax digest does not fulfill that commitment.”
— Dr. Stephen Green, Superintendent DeKalb Schools
Georgian Educator 
December 16, 2015 at 7:53 am
I agree with Dr. Green – the school districts’ sole purpose is teaching and learning. While I would love nothing more than to see a successful redevelopment of the GM property, I cannot support any use of money earmarked for DeKalb children’s education.
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December 16, 2015 at 5:07 pm
Given the overcrowding we are experiencing in the Cross Keys cluster and Region 1 and 2, we need all the money we can get right now. While the TAD may, in the long run, produce more revenue for DCSS, I don’t think the school system should take that chance. I didn’t realize the school system was going to be asked to give up so much. I think I spoke too soon without the necessary info when I said the school system may benefit from the approval of the TAD. I still support the intergovernmental agreement approved by the DeKalb County Board of Commissioners, but after looking at things a little harder, I can’t say I support DCSS getting involved.
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December 16, 2015 at 7:25 pm
The TAD money could be used to build a high school in Doraville if the school district stipulated it in their IGA. TADs are used to accelerate development. It could also be used to accelerate the relief from overcrowding in the Cross Keys cluster.
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December 16, 2015 at 8:07 pm
I totally agree, I just think it’s probably unlikely that Dr. Green and the BOE will approve something that won’t certainly result in more money for the district (though I think it’s quite likely). What do you think @dekalbinsideout?
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December 16, 2015 at 9:13 pm
If Dr. Green doesn’t want it, he won’t bring it before the board. The city council and the county commissioners passed this unanimously, yet the school district believes this will be a failure. Dr. Green made a number of statements without providing any data to back it up. We’ll know more when the advocates for the TAD come out.
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December 16, 2015 at 9:24 pm
I’m still a malleable person on this — as anyone might have seen during the past couple days in talking with me — but my position currently is that since DeKalb still needs to get its own house in order, I can’t imagine them making a decision with the uncertainty and risk that lies in approval of a TAD. But we will see…
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January 4, 2016 at 12:03 pm
The City Council did not pass this unanimously. I was on the Doraville City Council, and I was adamantly opposed to the TAD based on the information provided to Council. I think it would be fantastic to develop the former GM site, but I don’t think the issuance of $250 TAD bond is the way to do it.
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December 16, 2015 at 10:51 pm
Why oppose something like this TAD when you don’t know much about it?
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December 16, 2015 at 10:53 pm
I haven’t been convinced to advocate for it, but I am still open to changing my mind. What makes you say I don’t know much about it?
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