Parents in one of Georgia’s largest school systems are staring down a future where 27 neighborhood campuses could vanish from the map. The DeKalb County School District has floated a sweeping redistricting plan that would close schools, repurpose eight more buildings, and shuffle thousands of students over the next several years. What district leaders describe as a “conversation starter” has quickly turned into a flashpoint, with families accusing the system of treating their communities like pieces on a spreadsheet.
The proposal lands at a moment when trust in big districts is already thin and patience for disruption is even thinner. From elementary classrooms to sprawling high school campuses, the potential closures are raising questions about who pays the price for years of declining enrollment and uneven investment, and who gets to decide which schools are written off as expendable.
The scale of the shakeup and how DeKalb got here
At the heart of the uproar is a draft plan that would shut down 27 DeKalb County schools by 2030 and repurpose eight others into different uses such as early learning centers or specialty programs. District officials have framed the proposal as a response to shrinking student numbers and aging buildings, describing it as a starting point for public feedback rather than a done deal. Yet the sheer scale of what is on the table has stunned families who suddenly see their own campuses on a list of potential closures. The district’s own materials describe multiple scenarios that would phase out schools over six to eight years, with the heaviest impact at the elementary level, where 25 campuses could eventually be consolidated into larger sites that are closer to full capacity.
Behind the spreadsheets is a familiar story for big systems across the country, one that mixes demographic change, charter competition, and years of deferred maintenance. DeKalb County has watched enrollment slip while still operating dozens of half-full buildings, a problem that shows up clearly in maps of schools like Lithonia High School and other campuses that sit in neighborhoods with fewer school age children than a decade ago. District leaders argue that continuing to pour money into underused facilities is unsustainable, especially when some of those same buildings need major repairs that would compete with classroom spending. The plan’s release has also drawn attention to other DeKalb schools, from Cedar Grove High to Ashford Park Elementary, as families try to understand how boundary shifts might ripple across the county even if their own buildings stay open.
Families, teachers and neighborhoods push back
The human reaction has been swift and raw. Parents who have spent years fundraising for playgrounds or science labs now face the prospect of their children being bused past shuttered campuses to unfamiliar schools, and they are not hiding their anger. One national outlet described the mood as pure Outrage as families in a MAJOR district tried to process how 27 closures could be on the table at once. For many, the plan feels like a top-down move that treats school communities as interchangeable, even though each campus has its own history, culture, and alumni network that stretches across generations…