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Decatur School Board to discuss renovating field at Talley Upper Elementary

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Decatur School Board to discuss renovating field at Talley Upper Elementary

Talley Street Upper Elementary. Photo by Dean Hesse
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Decatur, GA — The City Schools of Decatur School Board will meet on Wednesday, March 8, at 5 p.m. for a work session. The meeting will be in-person at the Wilson School Support Center, 125 Electric Ave., and via Zoom.

During the work session, the school board will discuss renovating the backfield at Talley Street Upper Elementary School. 

To access the meeting, follow these instructions:

To view the meeting agenda, click here.

To join the Zoom meeting, click here.

To join by phone, dial +1 646 558 8656 or +1 301 715 8592. The webinar ID is 979 2323 30.

Work sessions are open to the public. The school board, however, does not accept public comment during work sessions.

According to the agenda packet, the school board will consider a contract with Athletic Construction for about $249,000 to renovate the backfield at Talley Elementary. The project would be funded with SPLOST VI funds. 

“After encountering excessive water runoff from adjacent properties, we required a more robust approach to redirect and properly drain the water off the field,” according to the agenda item. “This repair will include the installation of sub-drain lateral pipes to connect them to collector pipes. It will be filled with Rootzone mix (a combination of sand and topsoil) to achieve the hydraulic saturation required and proper drainage.”

The school board will also discuss the design of the track and field planned for Legacy Park. 

In February, the Decatur City Commission approved an agreement with Breedlove Land Planning to design the project. The contract amount is $285,000, and the project budget is $340,000. 

The city, the Decatur School Board and the Decatur Public Facilities Authority have entered into an intergovernmental agreement to develop the project.

In addition to the design, the work includes a community participation effort. The planned construction includes selective demolition, a new competition track and field facility, lighting, a synthetic turf athletic field, stormwater management and a field house or comparable renovations to the existing gym at Legacy Park, according to the agenda packet. 

According to the Legacy Park Master Plan, a competition level track and field was one of the most requested facilities during the master planning process. The concept in the master plan has the track and field located to the east of the historic core and near the next to the conservation easement of the park.

Also on the agenda, the school board will discuss the strategic plan and funding for the JADE program. 

The district is in the final stages of developing the strategic plan. The school board will view the draft plan during the work session. 

“The plan will serve as a roadmap for the next five years to guide our school system and community as we address systemic inequities and injustices that impact our community and our nation,” Superintendent Maggie Fehrman previously said. “This plan provides CSD with a clear focus on students as we confront and overcome racial and economic and social injustices and disparities.”

CSD has been working to create the Justice, Action, Diversity and Equity (JADE) program, a proposal for a single course on anti-racism and social justice that would be taken by every CSD student before graduation.

Decatur High School alumni Koan Roy-Meighoo and Julian Fortuna expanded the proposal to a three-year curriculum they would like to see implemented throughout the entirety of middle school. The JADE proposal was in the planning stages in 2021 and a pilot program was being created last fall. The former students are working with a curriculum designer to create the materials for the pilot program and teacher training.

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