DeKalb County Board of Education members Nov. 9 unanimously approved plans to build a 950-student school on the former campus of Shallowford Elementary in Dunwoody.
Board members chose to site the $35 million elementary school at 4680 Chamblee-Dunwoody Road in the Georgetown area. It will serve DeKalb County School District students from both Chamblee and Dunwoody.
Shallowford Elementary was originally constructed on the 9.4-acre property in 1968. A gymnasium building and covered walkway were added in 1998. The school was later repurposed as Chamblee Middle School. But by 2011, it had “deteriorated beyond economical repair,” according to the district. The school was deemed unsafe and uninhabitable, and was demolished in 2014.
District officials say the new school will alleviate overcrowding in current elementary schools in the area. The school board approved construction and funding for the new school in February. The district has earmarked $35 million in E-SPLOST funds for the project, a special penny sales tax reapproved by voters in 2016.
The school district hired Atlanta-based CGLS Architects to draw design plans for the new school.
Those site plans include a 118,000-square-foot schoolhouse with a courtyard, flanked by a parking lot with a capacity of 116 spaces and a school bus drop-off/pick-up depot just west of the building. A playground, 1.5-acre field and basketball court are slated for the outer perimeters of the property. Plans also include options for four future modular classrooms.
Officials did not specify a timetable for construction. The district already owns the undeveloped site. Noel Maloof, the district’s operations chief, said he expects construction to begin quickly and accelerate rapidly because the school is being built anew.