Summer will soon end for students in City Schools of Decatur and Atlanta Public Schools.

Students return to class on Monday, Aug. 4. DeKalb County Schools will resume classes a week later on Aug. 11.

There will be changes in store for some students. There’s also a sales tax holiday coming up to help parents purchase school supplies and an opportunity to help students who are in need.

Read on …

Reopened school, new leadership in Decatur

Westchester Elementary reopens after a 10 year hiatus to accommodate the growth in enrollment. City Schools of Decatur has used the building as its central offices, but has moved to its new digs at the Beacon Municipal Center.

The school’s principal is Rochelle Lofstrand.

Over at Decatur High School, there will be a new principal. Noel Maloof joins City Schools of Decatur this year, having previously served as principal at Dunwoody High School. Former DHS Principal Lauri McKain was promoted to Director of Secondary Education.

Decatur Police Sgt. Jennifer Ross also sent along this reminder:

“The lighter summer traffic will give way to more traffic in general to include school buses,” Ross said. “Please keep in mind we will also have many more young cyclists and pedestrians making their way to school. Please slow down and pay extra attention and plan for a little extra commute time to prevent speeding through the school zones. There will be an increased presence of Decatur officers in and around the school zones to remind everyone school is back in session.”

Ross provided this summary of school zones an attendance times for City Schools of Decatur:

Merged middle schools in Atlanta’s Jackson High cluster

Starting this year, there will be one middle school serving Jackson High in Atlanta.

Last year the Atlanta Board of Education voted to close Coan Middle and combine it with King Middle due to low enrollment at both schools, in part because of competition from Drew Charter School.

Now Atlanta Public Schools wants to get parents to reinvest in middle school education within the cluster after nixing an idea to turn Toomer Elementary into a K-8 school. Whether parents will want to commit to the idea of combining the two schools or send their children elsewhere remains to be seen.

During the first two years of the merger, all students would attend classes at the original Coan campus. While the students are at Coan, King will receive a $10 million to $20 million renovation. Students would move back to the King campus in August of 2016.

Sales tax holiday

The back to school sales tax holiday returns Friday, Aug. 1 and Saturday, Aug. 2.

Exempt items include clothing with a value of $100 or less, computers with a price of $1,000 or less, and school supplies like folders and pencils.

For a complete list of what’s exempt from sales taxes, click here.

The Georgia.gov blog notes that some things are definitely not exempt from sales taxes this weekend, like television sets and cell phones.

In a related item, the DeKalb County Fire Rescue Department is asking people to donate school supplies to help needy children this year. The donation period ends on Monday, Aug. 4. at 8 pm. You can drop the supplies off at any DeKalb County Fire Station. For a list of fire stations, click here.

DeKalb County Fire Rescue provided this list of needed items:

1. Backpack
2. Elmer’s school glue
3. Glue sticks
4. Blunt safety tip scissors
5. Number 2 pencils – NOT mechanical
6. Highlighters
7. Dry erase markers
8. Washable markers
9. Colored pencils
10. Pencil pouch with zipper
11. 24/32/48 count crayons
12. Large erasers
13. Ruler
14. Wide ruled notebook paper
15. Black and white composition books
16. Construction paper
17. Spiral notebook
18. Index cards
19. 1.5 inch binders with pockets
20. 3 prong folders with pockets
21. Hand sanitizer
22. Anti-bacterial hand soap
23. Box of Kleenex
24. Paper towels
25. Zip lock type bags – sandwich/quart/gallon