Chamblee-Dunwoody school approved after concerned community input

DeKalb Board of Education members approved a contract with Evergreen Construction Nov. 15 for construction of a new Chamblee-Dunwoody Elementary School on the site of the former Shallowford Elementary School.

Board of education members originally approved the school Nov. 9, 2020, as part of a plan to relieve overcrowding in the Chamblee and Dunwoody school clusters after hundreds of students were relocated due to redistricting in 2020.

Construction costs for the project are estimated at $31.05 million and board of education officials said construction will be funded with E-SPLOST.

Before board members voted to approve the construction bid, several citizens and Dunwoody Mayor Lynn Deutsch spoke about plans for the new school.

“I know that additional capacity across grades K through 12 is needed in our city and beyond,” Deutsch said. “For nearly a decade, representatives of DeKalb schools tried to either have Dunwoody purchase the Shallowford property or take a long-term land lease because the site wasn’t big enough to be utilized for a future school.”

Deutsch said the acreage for the site is listed at 9.1 acres but that the buildable space was “immediately reduced to a maximum of 8.8 acres.”

“This is a very small, unforgiving site,” Deutsch added. She said she believes more land is needed to accommodate the school’s proposed population and its outdoor facilities.

In addition to reservations about the size of the land, Deutsch also voiced concerns about how the school is being planned.

“The only driveway does not line up with the road across the street. It is critical for you to understand that if this was a private project, not only would it not receive construction permits, but the developer would also be sent away and told not to return until the street and the driveway aligned.”

According to Deutsch, the school proposal only has one driveway for entering/exiting and it is located on a busy street, but she said there are solutions DeKalb County School District and city of Dunwoody could use to correct the concerns.

“We don’t believe this is an unsolvable problem,” said Deutsch. “We want to work with the system. The DCSD design team and operations officials have been working with city officials to try and meet requirements, but the most concerning issue remaining is a safety one.”

Solutions suggested by Deutsch were, “Acquire a small amount of additional land so that the driveway can be shifted to line up with the road across the street … Shrink the enrollment of the school so that a smaller building can be constructed … Add a floor to the school so that the footprint of the school becomes smaller but without needing to reduce the potential enrollment.”

District 1 board of education member Anna Hill responded to Deutsch’s concerns during the board of education meeting.

“I have heard the questions. We’ve all gotten a lot of many emails. They’ve been very helpful,” said Hill. “We were sent a traffic study. They did say that the preliminary signal warrant analysis indicated that a traffic signal will not be warranted. [The study] recommended that a police officer control traffic at school peak hours …  I wanted to acknowledge that there has been a traffic study done, it was done by professionals, and of course we’ll want to work with city of Dunwoody regarding a police officer.”

“Regarding the site itself, CGL Architects sent a letter … they wanted to address the mayor’s concerns,” continued Hill. “We submitted preliminary building sites and building documents to Georgia Department of Education … We received their approval on June 18 with comments, and none of the comments received pertained to site acreage. This indicates that the proposed site plan met the requirements.”

Hill said the plan for the elementary school is 9.22 acres, but that the design accommodates the entire building, outdoor activities, parking areas, and driveways “without any conflicts.”

“I just wanted to point out that we have professionals who addressed these concerns,” said Hill.

Board members approved creation of Chamblee-Dunwoody Elementary School Feb. 20 with an initial construction budget of $29,500,000. DCSD officials released a formal request for proposals July 22. An additional request was made for a reallocation of the project budget of $1.55 million from Program Contingency for a total project construction budget of $31.05 million.

According to board of education members, the school will not be named Chamblee-Dunwoody Elementary School; they said they are using the current name as a placeholder.

School board officials said eight proposals were received in September for the new Chamblee-Dunwoody Elementary School Project and that six firms were short-listed and invited to provide additional information during an interview and presentation process. 

“The Evergreen Corporation, dba Evergreen Construction, will be responsible for the general contracting work as outlined in the proposal documents. The DeKalb County School District’s Standard Firm Fixed Price Contract will be used. The award of this contract will allow for the commencement of the construction of this project.”