Opinion: District's budget problems shouldn't hit Dunwoody High

Editors note: The DeKalb School board announced last week that a taxpayer-funded, . In response, the district's proposal is to scrap or shelve 35 school building projects, including more than $1.1 million in construction and renovations at Dunwoody High School.

The school was planning to finish up a $20-million renovation that was funded by a Special Local Option Sales Tax, the third to support the district. Still to be bought are new desks for teachers, whiteboards for the projectors in the classroom, and other items.

The plans for SPLOST 3 are now in limbo. Caren Morrison, with Dunwoody's School Council, has started a letter-writing campaign to the district that outlines problems at the facility and calls for continued funding for Dunwoody High School. The school board is scheduled to meet on Thursday to discuss the issue.

Dear Board,
I know a letter went out to you discussing our issues with SPLOST 3 outstanding items being cut. I would like to further discuss how the pending construction items impact Dunwoody High School.

• We had $21,029,346 allotted to us in SPLOST 3 that was to be used to build a new auditorium, build new classrooms on the 3rd floor, as well as add a Mass Communications room and update our science rooms and building for current technology.

• We were good stewards of that money and came in $1.2 million under budget. We then got approval from the Board to use that money for a variety of projects. Of that $1.2 Million, we have $1,138,610 left to cover items to be finished this summer.

• To start, we took $13,000 out of this number to pay for plumbing fixes to 40 year old pipes. Why wasn't this covered under maintenance?

• We then had less functionality in Mass Comm than we had when we started. We then had to pay $45,000 out of this budget to re-wire the building correctly. We had been "teaching" for over a year without the functionality we were expecting and at a lesser level than before the construction. This is in process.

• Whiteboards were either totally removed and a glue "mess" was left on the walls or a thick white backed cardboard was put up in its place! While some classrooms were given new boards, there are still many without. For two years we have teachers trying to teach everyday in less than adequate conditions. This has been estimated at $105,000!

• Baseboards were removed for painting of the old building and not replaced. In many cases, the paint didn't even go down to the floor so there is an unsightly mess of about 4 inches between the floor and the paint. While you would think this is part of the original scope, it was put on our list at a cost of $9,162.

• Replace all floors, carpet in Band and Orchestra rooms and cafeteria floors. The carpets in the music rooms are old and moldy. The conditions are unhealthy to both our students and our music teachers. The cafeteria is a patchwork of floors. Our hallways and classrooms also look old and dingy and have some with holes in the floors and broken off tiles. The total for these two line items is $226,000.

• Thresholds need to be replaced or added so that people don't trip. $3758.

• Our handrails were not all secure or up to code. We had them replaced or fixed at a cost of $2,590 out of our budget. This is done.

• We have teachers without desks! They are using tables that can just fit their computers (43 teachers affected). There are some teachers without lockable storage (20). There are 32 classrooms that need new student desks. We need to help our teachers teach by giving them a space to do their work and securely store their materials. This is estimated at $236,943 using the rest of the budget to supply teachers first and student desks last.

• Our Attendance Office was put in a small room. A rolling window was added during the December break for $800.

• Concession stand needs to be redone. It is the original and has metal windows that don't open and broken countertops. This is outside the gym that was just refinished. The cost is $26,461.

• Family and Consumer Sciences needs a facelift of cabinet fronts, new doors and hardware and countertops. This is estimated at $90,000.

• The south parking lot is full of potholes and in dire need of re-paving and re-striping. There are no handicap spots on this side of the building even though the entrances to the gym, elevator and Special Ed rooms are on this side! This is unacceptable. Eight spaces are to be moved down here this summer after the repaving is complete. We have holes where the posts for fencing were placed for construction and trailers. This needs to be cleaned up. This is our largest line item at $441,286 ! Seems high to us, but that is the number we were given.

Please understand that we love what was done! The new spaces have been a big boost to our community but unfortunately there are still places that were left unfinished or at a worse place than when we started!

Having less functionality at the end of this process instead of more is not where we should be. The fact that we came under budget helped us because we have had to pay for things to be "put right"!

We have been told that all these items would be done this summer, two years after our construction was "completed".
While no school should ever be put in this position, we have been working with DCSS to get these items completed so that our school can truly be a place where learning is the focus, not the glue on the walls, missing floor tiles, moldy carpets or pot holes. Please do not remove our construction items to make up for DCSS shortfall.