DeKalb County School District (DCSD) has four proposals on the table for reassigning students across six overcrowded clusters, but families still can't compare the educational benefits, financial costs or number of students who would change schools under each option.

That's the central finding of an analysis published Oct. 31 by the Brookhaven Brief, a newsletter written by David Felfoldi, a Brookhaven Planning Commissioner and former member of DCSD's Student Assignment Project (SAP) committee.

The critique lands days before two public comment sessions where Dunwoody and Brookhaven families can weigh in. The Chamblee, Dunwoody and Cross Keys cluster session is scheduled for Thursday, Nov. 5, at Dunwoody High School from 6 to 8 p.m. A separate session for the Druid Hills, Lakeside and Tucker clusters takes place Wednesday, Nov. 4, at Druid Hills Middle School during the same hours, according to the district's Engagement Session 3 page.

What the district got right

Felfoldi credited DCSD with several improvements in Round 3. The district extended its engagement timeline, added a fourth round of review before a final recommendation goes to the Board of Education, and moved beyond elementary-only scenarios to present four options covering elementary, middle and high school assignments.

DCSD also added "What We Heard" and "How We Listened" slides to its presentation, documenting concerns about school continuity, transportation and feeder patterns, Felfoldi wrote.

The district has published a side-by-side comparison of the four options showing projected utilization, feeder patterns, elementary capacity removed and estimated capital costs. No attendance-zone changes have been finalized, the district stated on its SAP page.

What's still missing

Felfoldi argued that projected school utilization is the primary measure of success in the district's materials, and that it falls short. "Higher utilization alone doesn't tell us whether reassignment produces better educational outcomes, meaningful savings, or benefits sufficient to justify the disruption," he wrote.

He noted that DCSD estimates capital improvement costs ranging from $0 under Option A to as much as $100 million under Option B. The comparison does not account for the number of students disrupted, operating savings, transportation impacts or measurable educational benefits, according to his analysis.

Felfoldi also raised a pointed question about class sizes. A school operating at 80% capacity could still have the same number of students per classroom as one at 110%, he wrote, because rebalancing buildings does not automatically mean hiring more teachers.

Cross Keys middle school gap

The most time-sensitive issue, Felfoldi wrote, involves Cross Keys. With Sequoyah High School scheduled to open in fall 2029, the current Sequoyah Middle School facility will shift to the new Sequoyah cluster. That leaves Cross Keys without a middle school.

Depending on how future attendance boundaries are drawn, potentially half of the current middle-school-age enrollment in the Cross Keys cluster could be affected, Felfoldi estimated. He called the need for a long-term Cross Keys middle school arrangement "particularly urgent."

DCSD's Engagement Session 3 materials acknowledge the question, stating this phase "considers whether a middle school should be created to serve the Cross Keys area alongside the high schools that will serve the area when Sequoyah High School opens in fall 2029."

Opt-out rates in Brookhaven

Felfoldi cited data DCSD presented to the Brookhaven Planning Commission the week of Oct. 27 showing that 43% of children in the Ashford Park attendance area and 40% in the Montgomery attendance area do not attend their zoned public schools.

He questioned whether overcrowding and extensive use of portable classrooms influence those decisions, but cautioned those are "questions worth examining, not conclusions we can draw from enrollment figures alone."

How to participate

DCSD's Round 3 online survey closes Nov. 10. Registration to speak at the Nov. 4 or Nov. 5 sessions closed Oct. 30, but the sessions are open to anyone in the district. A fourth engagement round is planned for December before a final recommendation advances to the Board.