Dear DeKalb County Schools Superintendent Cheryl Watson Harris and Board of Education Members:

The Sagamore Hills community would like to express our strong concerns about the recent proposal to redistrict Sagamore Hills Elementary School to Druid Hills High School (DHHS).  We do not believe this plan makes sense for our community for the following reasons:

(1) The distance increase in traveling from Sagamore to Lakeside vs. Druid Hills is significant. The DCSD Superintendent’s recommendations for school attendance areas has geographic proximity as the #1 primary criteria. Sagamore Elementary and its attendance zone are in Lakeside’s neighborhood. Using actual school buildings for reference, of the 7 feeder schools, Sagamore is the 4th closest, with the first 4 being Oak Grove at 0.8 miles away, Briarlake at 1.4 miles, Hawthorne at 1.4 miles, and Sagamore at 1.8. These distances are from school building to school building. There are some Sagamore families who are 1 mile away from Lakeside, and plenty who can easily walk on neighborhood sidewalks and roads to access Lakeside.  Not one Sagamore family can walk to DHHS.  And we realize there is also the matter of distance to middle schools.  We believe the proximity to middle school is of secondary importance given the reality of community involvement and engagement at middle school compared to high school is a very different scenario.  That being said, both middle school options require a similar length of time in the car on busier roads.  

(2) The Lakeside commute is safer than DHHS commute for our students, parents, and families.  Another criteria in determining attendance areas from the Superintendent’s recommendations is safety and traffic patterns. In addition to many that can walk to Lakeside from their homes, everyone in the Sagamore Hills district can drive to Lakeside without passing any major intersections.  On the flip side, every Sagamore resident would be required to drive past multiple major and dangerous intersections to get to DHHS.  This increased commute on busy roads and through major intersections heavily increases the likelihood of traffic accidents and putting our student drivers and families into unsafe situations on the road.  

(3) This would drastically alter and remove our sense of community.  You all stated during the district meeting announcing the plan that your desire for a strong community is a big reason you’re doing this, yet this is one of the core reasons this is bad for Sagamore.  Communities are formed around the high schools in their neighborhoods, and our local community high school is Lakeside.  In our community, the high school is a central part of life: booster club events, spirit nights, homecoming parades, concerts, art shows, plays and musicals, feeder school events.  Lakeside’s marching band walks through the streets of Sagamore Hills as part of their homecoming parade; we are a part of the Lakeside High School community.  We are not a part of the DHHS community, as it is further away, across significant traffic, and requires passing many busy streets for us to get there.  

(4) Other schools significantly further away are not being considered for redistricting, yet a school that is within the close community of Lakeside is. We are one of the closest feeder schools to Lakeside High School, but we are constantly having to fight to stay in the district.  In the proposed plan, schools that are significantly farther away than Sagamore would remain at Lakeside, while Sagamore is removed.  We’ve already established that Sagamore is the 4th closest feeder school to Lakeside.

(5) Fractured attendance lines.  The Superintendent’s recommendations for determining attendance areas also includes keeping neighborhoods intact. Currently, district lines divide the greater Sagamore Hills neighborhood between the elementary schools of Sagamore Hills and Oak Grove. However, the entire neighborhood feeds the Lakeside cluster so it is still an intact cluster from middle school on. Sending Sagamore Hills Elementary to DHHS would fracture this area, further eroding our sense of community.  

(6) History proves this is not a good change for the community at large.  It was referenced in the initial presentation that Sagamore Hills Elementary used to be districted to Druid Hills.  This is not entirely true.  A small portion of Sagamore used to be districted to Druid Hills over 20 years ago, and it did not work well for the community residents and students.  We have a number of proud DHHS alumni that grew up in Sagamore and then went to DHHS.  At the time, they were separated from the majority of their friends who went to Lakeside.  They left their nearby community to attend a school further away, putting a burden on their social-emotional health and their parent’s time and sense of community.  It wasn’t a good idea then, and it still isn’t.

(7) DCSD states that it is all about the social and emotional health of its students.  Removing Sagamore from the Lakeside district and community will have a significantly negative impact on the social and emotional health of our students and families, for all of the reasons stated above.  

(8) DCSD states that its #1 goal is to create “success with equity and access.” How would taking a school out of a community where many students can walk to their high school on neighborhood and residential roads and sending them down major roads like Clairmont Road, N. Druid Hills Road, North Decatur Road, and through a large and crowded college campus improve our access?  For all of the reasons stated above, we do not believe this improves our success with equity and access.

(9) DCDS stated in the meeting proposing this change that “everyone gets something, but nobody gets everything.”  We are not asking for everything.  Sagamore gets nothing good from this proposed change.  We would be removed from the community where we live, shop, socialize, participate in youth sports, and more.  

(10) Redistricting Sagamore Hills Elementary would negatively impact Lakeside Highschool. The parents of Sagamore Hills are generally very engaged in their community and their community schools. Due to the close proximity of Lakeside, the parents remain very engaged in the school and its extracurricular activities. Moving this group of engaged and nearby parents would be detrimental to Lakeside and its students.

(11) Lakeside High School capacity is a larger issue that needs to be solved.  The ~50 kids per year going into Henderson and then Lakeside aren't going to be a meaningful enough change to address the larger capacity issues at Lakeside.

We would like to be clear that this is not about Druid Hills Middle or High School as schools.  Again, we have a number of proud Druid Hills High School Alumni in our community.  This is about all of the reasons stated above, which are primarily centered around distance, safety, location, and community.  We are a reasonable and logical community, and if there was a reasonable plan that made sense to us we would consider it.  This plan makes zero sense to our community, and we plan to fight it aggressively.  

We appreciate your time in reviewing this, and we welcome the opportunity to have an open dialogue with the appropriate people, and we are ready to discuss this at your convenience.  

Thank You,
Keep Sagamore in Lakeside Cluster Community Group