Peachtree Charter Middle School was completely rebuilt at a cost of $19 million dollars and the school has been open to the 1,075 students since the middle of August. The beautiful new, striped and lit parking lot was finished about a month ago yet it is not open because the main entrance to the school at the intersection of North Peachtree Road & Kings Point Drive needs to be completely reworked. There are two street poles that need to be moved and the traffic controller, currently in the entrance lane to the parking lot also needs to be relocated and reprogrammed for a 4-way intersection.
The DeKalb County School System and the DeKalb County Transportation Division are arguing over who pays to rework the intersection & I have been informed that they have been arguing for almost 25 months over this specific detail with neither side willing to budge!!
Parents, Children & School buses are forced to use a cramped temporary access point at the back of the school which puts children at risk for being in an accident. The finger pointing between these two governmental agencies needs to stop, the intersection needs to be changed and the new parking lot needs to be accessible.
The fact WE THE PEOPLE allow the DeKalb County School Board and the Board of Commissioners to continue their NON-Working relationship MUST be an issue for our next CEO, and BOC candidate (Elaine's replacement) to address.
ReplyDeleteEssentially, that will mean the next Commissioner and BOC member will need to state that they only support development that considers school capacity. This critical change in thinking needs to be larger than Dunwoody, as new development surrounding Dunwoody will impact our schools.
Our new (2008 CEO) should make a campaign pledge to assist in bringing the BOC and the School Board together. Our School Board rep, Mr. Rendovian, should commit to continue to address this issue.
As many may know, The School Board spends about 70+% of your tax dollars, and they are exempt from the property tax freeze.
The rift between the School Board and the BOC is based, as I understand it, on the fact that when the BOC considers new development, it does so without regard to the impact of school capacity. Statewide legislation to make development subborn to school capacity, as Florida does, is not yet forthcoming. (HINT)
Lack of communication between the BOC and the School Board is a poor approach to problem resolution, akin to ingnoring an unruly child for bad behaviour instead of confronting the issue.
Currently, I am not aware of any RESOLVE to this CRITICAL issue. Folks, this one single issue affects each and every citizen in the ENTIRE County.
My daughter was almost hit by a car yesterday crossing Barfield to go into Peachtree. I'll bet money that the county and/or school board would fix the entrance situation on N. Peachtree quickly if they are sued because a child was injured.
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