I’ve taught in only two high schools. The first high school that I taught at was Berkmar High School in Gwinnett County Public Schools, and during the years that I taught there, we had 3200+ students attending that school. At Mill Creek High School, one of the top-performing schools in GCPS, there are almost 4000 students.
The second high school I taught at was Cross Keys High School, and during this year, we have had over 1500 students. There are strengths that exist in both types of models, and I hope to explore these in a way that will help the community to think through these issues in a critical way in order to arrive at an idea that will benefit the maximum number of students. That point is key – we as a community should want to maximize the benefit to the maximum number of students.
Benefits of 1500-student High Schools
In a smaller high school, students don’t feel like they are a “little fish in a big pond” – as one Dresden East Community Association member put it. By having three different high schools comprising 1500 students each – Cross Keys HS in Brookhaven, Chamblee HS in Chamblee, and a new Doraville HS in Doraville – this would accomplish the following:
- Greater individual city and community cohesion
- greater sense of community within the school and each city as a whole
- room to grow as the region grows (ability to add onto each of the 3 high schools)
- massive redistricting in the present, but prevention of future massive changes to attendance zone lines
This also translates into more schools, more buses, more principals and administrators, more custodians, etc. all of which equal greater expenses (but perhaps with a better return on investment).
I laid out this original argument in an earlier post last fall.
Benefits of 3000-student High Schools
Another option that isn’t as popular with some parents would be to close one of our high schools in region 1, and create a large public high school.
For Region 1 of DeKalb County Schools, that would look like a high school (with roughly 3000 students) located in Chamblee at the current Chamblee Charter High School. This central high school would serve Brookhaven, Chamblee, and Doraville (and parts of unincorporated DeKalb) and would do the following:
- promote unity between the three cities
- share resources
- integrate a greater number of diverse students
- save money for the district
- greater strength competing athletically and otherwise
- improve the ESOL programs at both Cross Keys HS and Chamblee HS
It’s important to note that both this option and the 1500-student high school option would include the magnet program remaining at Chamblee Charter High School. This option would be the least disruptive option in the present; however, it would potentially kick the proverbial “can” down the road.
Currently, Cross Keys High School is predicted to have 1400 students next year and Chamblee Charter High School is projected to have 1600 – and this is accounting for the 232 students who are being redistricted for CCHS.
Taking these numbers into consideration, we would already be at 3000 students by the time this “unified” high school opens. From what I have heard, the cafeteria at CCHS is supposed to only to be able to accommodate a 2800 student enrollment, so that would make this school overcrowded on day one of “integration.”
Click here to see the original handout from DeKalb County Schools with projected numbers.
One idea to mitigate this issue would be to have Chamblee High School claim the land from Chamblee Middle School, expanding its high school campus and re-allocating students in the middle schools. The magnet school could potentially occupy this “former” Chamblee MS property.
What is now the Cross Keys High School building could serve as a middle school and what is now Sequoyah Middle School would serve as the other middle school. This would address the overcrowding issue from both the middle school and high school standpoints.
The new district would look like this:
This is all to say that parents would need to be okay with sending their children to a 3000+ student school and that they are okay with their school having a different “personality” than it currently has.
In my mind, this integrating of two medium-sized high schools into one large high school can benefit our community and our school system (both financially, academically, and athletically), but we need to be okay with thinking outside the box and making some changes to our comfort zones.
I will lay out a third possible option in my next post – and this next option, I believe will be disruptive in the present but could provide a “middle-ground” option for both the Chamblee and Cross Keys clusters.
Please feel free to comment below or email me personally: rebekahcmorris@gmail.com.
Georgian Educator 
May 4, 2016 at 7:54 am
Rebekah, you’ve obviously given this a lot of thought and I love that you are “thinking outside the box”. I think this the best time in a long time within DCSS that this could be done.
I will admit that I am not a fan of large schools. It may be my own experiences with small, neighborhood schools, both for myself and my children. However, I hope, I am not adverse to being convinced otherwise. Your idea seems worthy of discussion and contemplation as I don’t believe the manner in which DCSS, and, subsequently school communities, have viewed overcrowding and redistricting can continue with “this is the way we’ve always done it” mentality. There are just no good options for addressing the overcrowding (and the under-enrollment in schools in other parts of the county) and at some point some different ideas need to be explored, and adopted.
The idea of using CMS as the magnet school is an interesting one. 2 thoughts come to mind:
1. The current capacity of CMS is 1,114. If you add the 300 or so magnet students at both CCHS and CMS, you have around 700 students. The magnet program could be expanded. A thought would be to move the Kittredge program into the building, but it would be at capacity and I’m not really in favor of putting ES students with HS students.
2. Having students at an offsite facility is not a new one for Chamblee, though it has been a long time since this was done. When I was a student at CHS (many, many years ago), several classes were held at what was then Sexton Woods ES while the CHS building (the one just torn down) was being built/expanded.
I am going to re-read and think some more on this. Thank you for your continued concern and advocacy for DCSS students!!!
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May 4, 2016 at 9:58 pm
Paula,
Thank you for taking the time to think through these and other ideas. I always respect your opinion and appreciate your insights. I completely understand many parents’ apprehension about 3000-student schools. I am always torn because I see the benefits of a “neighborhood high school” and also the benefits of a larger student body.
I really like your idea about perhaps combining both the CMS magnet program and the CHHS magnet program and expanding both by housing it in the current Chamblee MS building. I think there is definitely demand for these seats, and it would help open up seats at the current CHHS campus for many region 1 students. I agree with you: I don’t like the idea of the elementary school kids being on the same campus as the high school kids.
I’m going to propose a third option, and all of this is just to put some ideas out there for people to discuss and consider because I think sometimes it’s hard to even envision what some of the possibilities are, especially if you’re used to things being a certain type of way. I guess we’ll have to wait until next Tuesday to see what great plans the county has come up with for public input…
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July 24, 2017 at 4:22 pm
Rebekah,
You’ve actually touched on something I’ve been thinking about since I was a student in the 90s. See have had the unique experience, (and if you ask me) and privilege of having attended Chamblee High School, Class of 2000. But I also grew up in Brookhaven and lived almost all of my life befire turning 21 in Doraville, Chamblee and Brookhaven.
I played GYFC football in Doraville, went to Kittredge Magnet, lived almost right next to Cross Keys though the magnet program allowed me to go to Chamblee before it was a Charter. I brother and sister both went to Cross keys, most of my friends as well. Many people I played youth football ended at up at one of those two schools.
I always wondered what it would have been like if the two schools combined. A lot of the people in the region know each other from childhood through high school. Many of the neighborhoods are split by which school they attend. Cross Keys population could diversify Chamblee, and Chamblee could improve the quality of education received by Cross Keys students. Chamblee has a larger support and sponsor system, as well as preparticipation in extra-curricular that Cross Keys does not have. I just believe it would be an plus across the boand.
I randomly came across this article trying to see if the two schools play each other in football (playing Cross Keys was the only reason I ever played JV because we didn’t play each other on Varsity) this year. And after reading, I’m glad someone else put serious thought into this, especially an educator who has taught at one of the schools. Thanks for this well thought out an expressed read.
Jonathan…
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