Chamblee Charter High School Community,
We wish to provide an update to our school community regarding previously advertised plans for our school’s Governing Board meeting on November 14. We previously released a survey link through eBlast and our school’s website for Chamblee stakeholders to provide open-ended questions and feedback to our school district regarding proposed plans for redistricting between now and the year 2022. Those proposed plans would presumably increase Chamblee Charter High School’s enrollment over that same period. We previously promoted the fact that district leaders from DeKalb County Schools Facilities and Operations Division would be present on November 14 at our Governing Board meeting to address stakeholders’ questions and comments regarding the proposed redistricting plans.
The open-ended responses we received on-line from Chamblee stakeholders were comprehensive and robust. This critical stakeholder feedback has already provided our school district with some immediate and important next steps to explore regarding possible redistricting options that may impact Chamblee cluster schools.
Since receiving this stakeholder feedback, members of our district leadership team, representing all divisions within DeKalb County Schools, have already begun meeting to analyze and study appropriate responses to address community input. Additionally, plans are already underway for all principals within the Chamblee cluster schools, including myself, to begin meeting with district leadership as soon as the week of November 14, to solicit input and engagement from impacted-schools’ instructional leaders. This is to involve principals in dialogue with district leaders about community questions and comments we have already received and to appropriately prepare for redistricting options to support all of our collective students. This is a similar process that took place in Spring-Summer 2016 as we prepared for a successful transition with our most recent round of redistricting. Also, our district leadership team is already preparing Frequently Asked Questions and Answers (FAQs) documents to publish soon for Chamblee cluster stakeholders to have direct answers and more information about the robust community questions we have already received.
We expect to releases these new FAQs documents very soon. Given these new important pieces of information, our district leadership participation at the Chamblee Governing Board meeting on November 14, 2016 will not include representation from the Facilities and Operations Division. Given the comprehensive list of questions they have already begun reviewing and analyzing, the operations team is already hard at work researching appropriate responses. We will have representation on November 14 from our district’s Division of Curriculum and Instruction to support our articulation of our instructional program to support all Chamblee students, including those we are yet to enroll. We will continue to receive wide-ranging support from DeKalb County Schools to bolster all Chamblee students’ positive learning outcomes. These include additional supports we are already receiving through the current redistricting process and those for our normal instructional program.
There will be additional community meetings planned and facilitated by DeKalb County Schools representatives as more information becomes available and definitive plans materialize about how SPLOST V funds may be utilized to address overcrowding in impacted schools, including the Chamblee cluster schools. We will provide information on those next rounds of community input meetings as soon it becomes available. In the meantime, know that we will continue to utilize all available resources to ensure all Chamblee students experience a comprehensive, rigorous, and relevant education.
Thank you for your support of Chamblee Charter High School, and all Chamblee cluster schools.
Respectfully -Norman C. Sauce III, Ed.D., Proud Principal, Chamblee Charter High School
