"I write on behalf of Emory University to convey the importance to us in Druid Hills remaining a high school," said Chace in a letter to the board dated Jan. 31. "The Emory community has a deeply-rooted history of interaction with Druid Hills, and many programs are currently in progress." Cochran echoed that sentiment in his letter to the board in which he pointed out the many ways that the two institutions interact: Emory students serving as tutors; Druid Hills students enjoying access to the libraries and the museum; plans for a "virtual library" between the two schools; the capability for students in Emory's teacher training program to observe classes at Druid Hills; and the vision of Druid Hills serving as a laboratory school for the Division of Educational Studies.
"I think it is obvious that much of the present and future relationship between Emory and Druid Hills has been predicated on the status of Druid Hills as a high school," Cochran wrote. "To experience a significant change involving an entirely new age group of students would certainly alter our relationship, and an entirely new faculty unfamiliar with the planning of the previous two years would be not a little unsettling."
According to School Board Vice Chair Brad Bryant, the committee considering the issue worked through a complicated process, considering the acreage of each school, the physical plant, the capacity that had been determined by the school system, the strength of school traditions, and the desegregation process the federal court has guided the school system through for more than 25 years, as well as other issues. Bryant said that the proposal presented to the board by the committee did recommend Shamrock remain a high school and Druid Hills be converted to a middle school. However, it was not a unanimous recommendation, and they also presented two options.
"What must have created a roadblock in the committee's minds was that Druid Hills sits on a very small piece of acreage, bounded by Emory University and Emory Presbyterian Church," said Bryant. "The capacity of the school was in the 1,100 range; Shamrock has capacity for more than 1,500 students." When the board received the committee's recommendations, they began to explore the issue of Druid Hills' capacity. They found that there were plans to reclaim some of the space currently being used for special education, which increased Druid Hills' capacity to 1,350. That increase "meant we would not lose any M-to-M [majority-to-minority] spaces within the corridor," according to Bryant, and removed what seemed to be the impediment to the committee for Druid Hills remaining a high school.
"Since Emory and Druid Hills played up the role they had in working together, the ball is squarely in the court of Druid Hills and Emory to make the transition as smooth as possible," said Bryant. He is hoping to see Shamrock brought into the Emory/Fernbank/Druid Hills partnership "as an interdependent part of K-12 education with Emory being involved with kindergarten through postgraduate education."
--Nancy Spitler