The Augusta Courier

DeKALB SCHOOLS REPORTED IN CRITICAL CONDITION; ENROLLMENT INCREASED 5 THOUSAND IN PAST 3 YEARS

More Class Rooms Teachers Needed; County Tax Levy Now Limit Of Law

DeKalb County schools are in a critical condition according to County School Superintendent J. D. Cherry.

The reason is that DeKalb County is growing too fast and enrollment in schools is increasing by leaps and bounds.

In three years' time the enrollment in the schools has increased between 5 and 6 thousand pupils.

It has jumped from 10 thousand 3 years ago to between 15 and 16 thousand today.

And yet the number of school teachers allotted by the State have been frozen, and the DeKalb County schools are caught in the freeze.

DeKalb County is suffering from overcrowded school rooms and not enough teachers.

And yet they are levying the limit of the law in taxes in order to relieve this intolerable condition.

Superintendent Cherry's statement in reference to this condition follows:

"The DeKalb County School System has increased in the enrollment of white pupils in the past three years from 8,517 to 12,055.

The negro enrollment in the same period has increased from 1,734 to 2,042. The total enrollment, white and negro, has increased from 10,251 three years ago to 14,097 in 1950.

"In the school year 1949-50, the enrollment increased 1700 children, 1,599 white and 101 negro.

"The average daily attendance on this increased enrollment entitled the DeKalb County Board of Education to an increase of forty-four state paid teachers, thirty-eight white and six negro.

"It is to be kept in mind that this increase of 1700 children was carried for one full school year before any state financing was available.

"The DeKalb County Board of Education in the school year 1949-50 employed seventy teachers and paid their full salary with no assistance from the state.

"In order to earn a state allotted teacher, it is necessary to maintain an average daily attendance of thirty-five children in the elementary grades and thirty children in high school. Enrollments of approximately 39 and 34 respectively are necessary to secure this average daily attendance.

"The DeKalb County School System levies the fifteen mills county wide school tax and a two and one-half mill vocational tax on all property in DeKalb County located in the City of Decatur and in the City of Atlanta. It is primarily a residential county, with approximately forty-five percent of the total digest eliminated from school taxes for operation by the homestead exemption.
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More Class Rooms Teachers Needed; County Tax Levy Now Limit Of Law

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"As a residential county, many of its citizens work in the Atlanta city limits where most of the real property is located.

"At this time, approximately 3500 living units, apartments, and homes are under construction in DeKalb County. The estimated increased school enrollment for the school year 1950-51 is 2000 children. Unless the State Department of Education is able to finance the forty-four additional teachers earned by this system, it will be necessary to crowd the existing 375 classrooms with an additional 2000 children, or an average of six children per classroom.

"The DeKalb County Board of Education, if it undertakes to finance the state obligation for the salaries of the forty-four teachers, will be forced to borrow money anticipated from 1951 taxes. This will obligate school money needed for the school year 1951-52 to complete the school year 1950-51. If the Minimum Foundation Program of Education is financed during 1951, no provision of this program provides for paying debts already incurred as pre-commitments to the installation of the Minimum Foundation Program.

"The story of DeKalb County is the story of many of the large urban centers which are increasing in school population rapidly as the result of the readjustment of state population. The failure of the state to assume its obligation to these large urban centers will place a strain upon these systems which may lead to bankruptcy."