DeKalb County school board members were set to take a pivotal vote Monday on a contract that could finally push the long-debated Druid Hills High School modernization out of the talking stage and into paid design work. The nearly 100-year-old campus has been plagued by failing plumbing, exposed wiring and occasional sewage backups, issues that helped spark a fierce debate over whether to renovate the school or move it entirely. The contract vote would be the first formal procurement step since the board chose to renovate the historic campus rather than relocate it.
The agreement up for approval covers architectural and engineering services and, if adopted, would cap spending on those services at just over $7.5 million, according to 95.5 WSB. That authorization would let the district commission the detailed design work that sets the scope and projected cost of later construction phases. Board members were scheduled to take up the item at their regular meeting Monday evening.
Price Tag And Funding
District officials say the full modernization could run as high as $185 million and would lean heavily on the next round of the Education Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax, a funding measure voters are slated to decide in November 2026, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. In December, the board voted 5–2 to preserve the historic 1927 main building and construct most new facilities on the existing campus, a decision that locked in the current timeline and tradeoffs.
Design Team And Documents
Project materials from the DeKalb County School District list MSSA-PBK as the Phase I design team and cite a modernization report and site-utilization study that will guide later design and permitting work, per district documents. Those files state the district expects design and permitting to take several months once a contract is executed, and they spell out the project number along with early cost estimates used to budget the effort, DeKalb County School District indicates.
Why Students And Neighbors Pushed For Action
Starting in 2022, student-shot videos that spread online showed water-stained ceilings, exposed wiring and plumbing failures at the school, footage that drew state scrutiny and pushed Druid Hills back onto the board’s agenda, WSB-TV reported. Some board members and community advocates have warned that the project’s price tag could squeeze improvements at other DeKalb schools, while district staff argue that approving architectural and engineering work is a necessary next step to firm up schedules and costs.
If the contract wins approval, the district plans to move ahead with hiring a construction manager and finalizing scopes for bidding, but the dollars for actual construction would still hinge on the future E-SPLOST vote. Monday’s board action would not itself commit construction funds, yet it would authorize the planning work needed to turn rough modernization concepts into real, testable cost estimates.
For a deeper look at how the renovation-versus-relocation fight played out, see Hoodline’s earlier coverage of the earlier modernization vote.
