Schools

Neighborhood Expresses Concerns Over New Buckhead High School

School board member, APS officials meet with residents

APS will complete the purchase of a 56-acre site for a new Buckhead High School on May 2, school system officials told members of the Mount Paran-Northside Citizens Association Thursday.

The contract between APS and Jamestown Properties for the $56 million deal was signed on March 10, said Larry L. Hoskins, APS deputy superintendent of operations. He said the school system is now in its 90-day due diligence period for acquiring the site, now leased by IBM from Jamestown.

School officials told members of the Mount Paran-Northside Citizens Association that the new North Atlanta High School will be ready to open by August 2013, with a total cost of a little more than $100 million for land purchase, construction and equipment. Hoskins disclosed that Jamestown Properties reduced the property's price by $23 million.

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Association members expressed frustration at not being involved in the site selection process for the school, which would replace North Atlanta High. The North Atlanta site will be used to relieve severely overcrowded Sutton Middle School. The North Atlanta site will be either a second middle school for Buckhead or house seventh and eighth graders, with the current Sutton site changed to a sixth grade academy.

"The disinformation and misinformation is bothersome," said resident John Adams, who nodded when another resident suggested "under-information." "I'm kind of a little freaked out to only be finding this out now."

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Joanne Reu said "we were not necessary to be part of the decision — we were just necessary to be told when the purchase was made."

Hoskins, APS Director of Capital Improvements Jere J. Smith, APS Chief Financial Officer Chuck Burbridge and District 4 school board member Nancy Meister appeared before the MPNCA members who gathered at a private home to discuss their concerns. The 1,200-resident neighborhood is concerned that Mount Paran Road will suffer a traffic increase when the school opens.

In response to a question submitted before the meeting, Hoskins said that the new school will actually ease the traffic burden. The IBM site is designed to handle 4,000 employees, he said, although Debra Wathen of the Paces neighborhood said from 300 to 400 employees now work at the site.

When the new school opens, it's expected to have 1,478 students, about 70 to 72 percent of whom will ride school buses, up from the present 65 percent, Hoskins said. The new school will be served by 27 buses instead of the current 23, he said. In addition, the new school will have 150 to 175 teachers and support personnel. At present, the school has 1,230 students.

 Adams calculated that  625 autos and 27 buses would travel to the new school each day "all coming from the south." The property is located on the far north side of Buckhead, near the Chattahoochee River, the Atlanta city boundary. Residents dismissed with laughter Hoskins' supposition that some students would walk to the school.

Residents said that the new school would worsen the traffic hazards of the  I-75 exit onto Mount Paran Road, and Hoskins agreed that the APS would work with the neighbors to get the Georgia DOT to make design changes.

Hoskins said the APS has not done a formal traffic study for the site but would do one during the due diligence period. Meister said she has been in contact with District 8 City Council-member Yolanda Adrean about the construction and "she's asking the city to do a traffic study as well."

Smith said that only 25 to 20 acres of the new site can be developed, with the rest of it creeks and rock outcroppings.

Residents' concerns about the cost of the site appeared to be eased by the officials' statements that the school system plans to use some of the buildings presently on the site for the new school.

"At least one of the buildings will be used, and if we can adapt the second building to the needs of the academic program, then we will do that," Hoskins said. "Whatever we can reuse, we intend to reuse."

In addition, Smith said, the cost is less than the complete construction of a new school from scratch because the site already has a parking deck, utilities, roadways and other infrastructure.

Smith also said the site has "two very well-engineered intersections there, with lights and signals."

In response to a pre-submitted question about the APS accreditation probation, Hoskins said "We don't believe the accreditation issue will have any impact on the purchase of the property." 

He said the bond issue is being supported by a federal program; Brubridge later said the federal program will pay for the interest on the bonds. 

If city voters renew the school board's special sales tax, part of the proceeds will go toward relieving the bond debt, Hoskins said. If the school board decides not to call for a vote to renew the SPLOST, or if voters reject it, "we have made provisions going forward in our budget, to retire the debt that way through the general fund."

In response to a question from the audience, Meister said "the feeder pattern will not change" for the new school, with six elementaries in the North Atlanta district.

The APS expects the new school to have 1,738 students by 2019-20 and has completed one demographics study, available on the APS Web site, with another in the works. "We have commissioned a demographics study for the district which in October should inform us," Brubridge said. 

No football stadium will be built at the new school, which will have a baseball stadium and a practice field at which soccer and lacrosse games can be played.  

The school system has not selected an architect for the new school, and is asking school district residents to participate in planning. Those wishing to serve on a project committee can contact school Principal Mark Mygrant.


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