Ariel and The DES 4th 5th Grade Academy, Take 2

Careful what you ask for.  DES wanted relief from overcrowding, and that's what they got.  Parents are freaking out over this Academy plan.  This same thing happened 11 years ago.  No need for too  much of a backstory, but when DES opened in 2009, nearly everyone argued over the new attendance zones for each school.  The unwanted compromise was the DES 4th and 5th Grade Academy.  No one wanted to leave Austin or Vanderlyn.  So, 4th and 5th graders from Chesnut, Austin, and Vanderlyn (yes, even 11 years ago Kingsley was being ignored by DCSD) went to DES Academy, home of the Tigers!  Parents screamed, then screamed even more.  Many families had kids at Vanderlyn, DES, and PCMS at the same time.  These same kids spent a lot of time in trailers, from 1-12th grade. The 4th 5th grade academy lasted only two years.  Crawford Lewis was superintendent and Jim Redovian was the school board rep for this region. Nancy Jester became the region's school board rep in 2011, about the same time Ramona Tyson replaced Lewis.

Fast forward to Dunwoody High graduation in 2018 - the graduating class of the 4th 5th grade academy.  About a dozen of the kids were at DunwoodyTalk HQ, so one of our cub reporters asked the kids about their favorite years in DeKalb.  Most of these kids were K-12 Dunwoody schools.  Some were home-schooled or private for a couple of years - but for the most part, these kids went to a Dunwoody elementary school K-3, the Academy 4 and 5, then PCMS 6-8, then DHS 9-12.  Every one of the kids who went to the 4/5 said it was awesome.  It got them away from kindergarten kids (moms and dads, your 5th grade could care less about going to DES with his 1st grade sibling, so don't use that as a reason to not have the 4/5 school) and into a school filled with kids nearly all the same age.  Granted, the original 4/5 was different as it pulled from three schools, allowing for middle school friend groups to form early.  And yes, the Kingsley kids were left out, but they found their friend groups once at PCMS.

Off the record, a DHS school employee told me that the 2018 graduating class was one of the top years for students getting accepted into UGA and  GA Tech.  Kids from the Academy era are now freshman and sophomores in college and trade schools.  UGA, Ga Tech, Duke, Vanderbuilt, UVA, SMU, Ivy schools.....  In summary, the Academy hurt only the parents' feelings, not the kids.

And move over Ryan S. - the newest star from a Dunwoody school is Halle Bailey, also known as Ariel!  Halle was a 5th grader at DES.

DES Fall 2010

Halle Bailey on right