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Possible upgrades to Druid Hills High School
School leaders have three proposed options to renovate Druid Hills High School, but they all come with significant financial hurdles.
DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. - DeKalb County officials are weighing their options as they look into possible renovations to Druid Hills High School.
Parents filled the school's auditorium on Monday night to hear more about the county's plans for the school. Plans have been ongoing, but school leaders say the options come with significant financial hurdles.
"I want to see where my taxpayer dollars are going," parent Renee Davis-Richardson told FOX 5. "This is my first step in being part of the modernization process."
The school got a lot of attention two years ago when frustrated students posted an eight-minute video detailing what they said were years' worth of problems.
Students used their phones to document plaster falling off walls, water leaking in many areas and a ceiling hole so big a student is shown placing his entire hand through it.
"Human waste tends to flow up from it and flood this area right here which is known as our senior picnic area, and we eat outside here every day," then-senior Townes Purdy said on the video while pointing to a century-old water pipe.
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Druid Hills High School students say they're learning in unsafe conditions
School leaders plan to renovate the school, but students want things to happen quickly.
State Superintendent Richard Woods wrote a letter in response to the video, saying he would not support other improvements to DeKalb County schools until facilities issues at Druid Hills were addressed.
A little more than a month after the video was posted, the DeKalb County Board of Education voted unanimously to restore the high school to the district's five-year facilities plan and allot $50 million for repairs.
At the meeting on Monday - the third and last in a series that started in September - school leaders presented three options for the renovation.
"Before we can put together a full scope of what the project would look like to show them what we do as close to the budget as we can possibly find right now," DeKalb County Superintendent Dr. Devon Horton said.
Druid Hills High School (DeKalb County Schools)
Option one calls for bringing the campus fully up to code. That would cost at least $80 million.
Option two would add more classrooms to house 400 more students. That'd cost $125 million.
The third and most expensive option would be a new campus at a different site. That'd be $200 million.
"Our students deserve a modern facility with structures they can feel safe and secure in," Horton said.
School officials have pointed to challenges to the project, including the age of the building and the property the school sits on.
It's unclear when the district will vote on a potential modernization plan or if there will be additional community meetings.