Parents share mixed views on DeKalb School District 428’s redistricting plans

DeKALB – Brittany Baie said she doesn’t feel great about how her children might be impacted by proposed elementary school redistricting in DeKalb School District 428.

Baie, who lives in the Devonaire Farms subdivision in DeKalb, said she and all of her neighbors’ children would attend Lincoln Elementary School instead of Malta Elementary School under the drafted plans, which she’s not thrilled about.

Living in that neighborhood, where her dad’s from, was one of the reasons she moved, Baie said.

“With us being a neighborhood that’s only five minutes from Malta, it’s just a little frustrating to move schools,” Baie said. “I guess the only good thing is the whole neighborhood would go, but it’s really going to affect our children because they love that school. They love the teachers there, even the ones that are not in their grade.”

Baie was among dozens of parents and family members who showed up for the first of two public meetings held by DeKalb district officials as leaders present final drafts of redrawn elementary school attendance boundary maps.

If approved by the school board, the new plans would take effect for the 2025-2026 school year.

Amonaquenette Parker, the district’s director of diversity equity and inclusion, said the new maps are necessary.

“Change is necessary because we are adding a new school,” Parker said. “There is no way that you cannot change your attendance boundaries if you are adding a new school. We are not grandfathering in. It prolongs the process. It actually makes things wonky.”

The new Dr. Leroy A. Mitchell Elementary School in DeKalb is expected to be ready to open in the fall. The building is under construction, and will need students when ready.

Officials have said a new elementary school was needed to help growing student population numbers and lower teacher ratios.

In December, the district held a pair of committee meetings, one virtual, one in person.

“I would say about 60 ... community members came out,” Parker said. “They asked questions. Some of them I see again tonight. They had some recommendations. We took some of their feedback. There was some changes as a result of their recommendations.”

Baie said it’s hard to dismiss, but must acknowledge at the same time, how the district’s redistricting plans have prompted a “devastating blow” to students and their families.

“I think it’s just change,” Baie said. “I don’t know anything about Lincoln [Elementary School]. We’ve made Malta [Elementary School] our home.”

Some spoke in support of the district’s plans, including DeKalb resident Kalyn Knight. She said she has a daughter who would start kindergarten at Tyler Elementary School in the fall.

“I think the boundary plans were meticulously put together,” Knight said. “I think it takes into account the needs of the entire school district. That gives me more respect for governance [and] understanding of why it’s necessary.”

Knight said she is concerned about what may happen if her daughter needs to cross a busy street.

“They did make me a little bit more comfortable today with the consideration that if they needed to cross a major highway that they would bus them,” Knight said. “The principal spoke that they would have the crossing guards. That makes me feel better.”

DeKalb resident Timika Cherry, who lives across the street from Mitchell Elementary School, said she believes her son will adjust accordingly to a new school.

Cherry said her son currently attends Brooks Elementary School.

She said she and her family anticipate moving into their new home in the Devonaire Farms subdivision by the start of classes in the fall, if not sooner.

“I think he’ll probably transition well,” Cherry said. “I mean, kids will adapt, as long as it’s not happening every year.”

Not everything was to Cherry’s satisfaction, however. She said she believes DeKalb district officials are being deceptive by not allowing the public to see the proposed boundary maps from the December and January meetings side-by-side.

She said she wants to see the maps to compare what’s changed in the district’s proposal.

“I’m trying to see the cut off because I guess what I would need to do is look at the old plans because I’m not certain about the other schools and then look at the new plans,” Cherry said. “That probably would have been a better way of noticing, but maybe they wanted to minimize the type of comments about it. So, I don’t know if that is the case. Maybe it is a drastic change, but I’m only looking at how we are directly affected when I look at it.”