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From: Mac McIntyre
Category: General Discussion
Date: 23 Jan 2003
Time: 09:12:28 -0500
Remote Name: 12.251.130.11
I attended the school board meeting so I want to clarify a couple of points. The school board has not officially rejected Suhadolnik's proposal to build a new school. They are going to bring the issue up again at their Feb. 3rd meeting. School board President Don Robinson did state that the board had issued a statement opposing the Savannah Green project but no vote on the new proposal was taken.
The Chronicle's report of the meeting contained one glaring error. The proposed school has a capacity of 475 students, not 300 as reported in the Chronicle. According to the student multipliers contained in Article 8 of the City of DeKalb's Uniformed Development Ordinance, pertaining to impact fees, Savannah Green will produce about 180 elementary students. It is not known how many of those students will have already lived in DeKalb.
I really have to wonder why the Ad Hoc committee did not discuss, with Suhadolnik, Savannah Green and its proposal to build the new school.
I heard Dr. Ali address the DeKalb Plan Commission and urge them to not "pre-empt" the efforts undertaken by the DeKalb Growth Summit as they considered Savannah Green. It certainly appears to me that it is the school board who is pre-empting the Growth Summit with their promotion of a 2% or less growth rate for the city.
As for the referendum, count me in on the opposition side. And I also believe the opposition side needs to organize. There is a fundraising campaign underway by the Ad Hoc committee to generate some $30k-$50k for advertising the YES vote and to hire professionals to get their vote out. It does not seem fair, nor best for DeKalb, for one side of an issue to be well funded and well oiled while the other depends on grassroots support. Especially when the daily newspaper has already endorsed the referendum plan.
One final note: Is it me or are there others who are scratching their heads wondering if the shift to air condition the high school is an attempt to buy votes with referendum money?