Cross Keys High School in Brookhaven, which was built in the 1950s, is finally moving forward with needed repairs and renovations that have been promised for nearly a decade by DeKalb County School District.
During a 10-hour DeKalb County school board meeting on March 10, board members voted 6-1 to approve spending $148 million to modernize the building by using Education Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (ESPLOST V and VI).
Plans include upgrading the food science lab, restrooms and the courtyard; renovating the gymnasium; replacing HVAC systems; re-roofing existing buildings; and building a new auditorium and music suites.
DCSD COO Erick Hofstetter responded to criticism over the slowness of the project, stating that it can take 12 to 24 months to get to this point.
“These projects were the priorities of previous boards who made those agreements. We’re just now carrying those out, and the reprioritization that this board wants will change, but that’s how the process works,” Hofstetter said. “All our buildings have needs.”
The project, however, has been in the mix for nearly a decade. An ESPLOST V referendum was approved by voters in May 2016, and the DeKalb School Board approved a new addition and modernization at the Cross Keys High School site in December 2016.
In 2018, the school board approved a contract with Evergreen Construction Company for pre-construction services in the amount of $90,000. It wasn’t until May 2024 that school board members approved a $44 million budget associated with the construction of the addition and modernization of Cross Keys High School ESPLOST V project.
Between 2018 and 2024, the board has discussed redistricting Cross Keys and moving the students to a different campus.
Longtime school board member Deirdre Pierce said the panel needed to “make sure that Cross Keys gets what they deserve.”
“[Cross Keys] has been a hot spot for 15 to 20 years. … They’ve asked for many things and we have not given them what they’ve requested,” Pierce said.
School board member Whitney McGinnis argued against the approval, claiming that only $20 million is left from ESPLOST V fund during a time when the school board is proposing to withdraw $39 million. She said it was “not a surprise to anyone that we weren’t going to have enough money to fully fund this project.”
“I don’t know how all that squares,” said McGinnis, adding that the public deserves transparency. “We have not been open and honest with the public.”
McGinnis was the one dissenting vote. “I’ve planted my flag,” she said. “I’m not going to approve these projects until there is a path forward that is believable.”
Cross Keys sits on a 26-acre lot on North Druid Hills Road in Brookhaven. It currently houses more than 1,200 students, who will remain on the campus while the building is under renovation.
