DeKalb County (Ga.) board votes to repair Druid Hills High School after state intervenes

After a student video brought attention to deteriorating conditions at the high school and a subsequent directive from the state, the board agreed to allocate $50 million to renovate the school.

June 2, 2022

The DeKalb County (Ga.) board has reconsidered an earlier decision and has unanimously approved a $50 million plan to renovate Druid Hills High School.

The vote comes after Georgia Board of Education told the DeKalb board to commit to modernizing the building or risk losing state funding for construction projects districtwide, reportsWSB-TV.

A student-produced video that showed poor conditions at the school brought attention to the situation, but the DeKalb voted in April to allocate modernization funds elsewhere.

State Superintendent Richard Woods wrote a scathing letter to the district, saying that the board should have handled the deteriorating conditions st Druid Hills before the students made the video. Wood said the district contended it didn’t have the money to repair Druid Hills, but he noted that it had received nearly $500 million in Covid relief funds that had not been spent.

The project will repair the school's roof, plumbing, heating and air conditioning. The state Department of Education said it would approve state facilities funds for DeKalb as long as the district follows through.

Funding for the project will come from a local sales tax collection.