DeKalb County School District still carries a project called “214. New Cross Keys HS” in its capital ledger.
The work listed beside that title tells a different story: “Construction of Addition and Modernization (Extensive Renovation) of Cross Keys HS.”
It is happening on the existing campus at 1626 North Druid Hills Road. The district’s estimate at completion was $165.6 million as of Dec. 31, 2025.
That difference matters because families in six school clusters are now being asked to help redraw attendance boundaries around buildings that are still under construction.
What families are deciding this fall
In August, DCSD continued its Student Assignment Project for overcrowded schools in the Lakeside, Cross Keys, Chamblee, Tucker, Dunwoody and Druid Hills clusters.
The district is developing attendance-boundary recommendations involving Dresden Elementary, Idlewood Elementary, Sequoyah Middle, the new Sequoyah High and Cross Keys High. Creating a new Sequoyah cluster is one of the priorities.
Families can complete surveys, join focus groups and advisory teams, or speak during public-comment sessions. The Board of Education is expected to consider recommendations in December 2026.
Nothing changes during the current school year. But families are being asked to weigh new boundaries before every building tied to them is finished.
The district’s June 24 capital report listed Cross Keys High at 38 percent complete, with construction ending in August 2028. The new Sequoyah middle and high schools had a construction budget of about $243 million and an August 2029 end date. New Dresden Elementary, a 900-seat school, was listed through August 2027. Idlewood Elementary’s renovation was listed through July 2027.
Those project sheets give construction end dates. The assignment website says new and expanded schools will open between 2027 and 2029, but it does not give a first day of school for every building.
The district says the work remains on schedule
The June report says Sequoyah Middle, Sequoyah High, Dresden Elementary, Cross Keys High and Champion Theme Middle remained on schedule and were progressing against their approved baselines.
Cross Keys came with a more specific note. Some milestones were behind schedule because crews encountered buried rock, but the contractor had recovery work underway.
Buried rock happens. So do schedule changes. Both facts belong in the story.
Cooper Carry is designing the Cross Keys project, and Evergreen Construction is building it.
How a new school became a renovation
Voters approved E-SPLOST V in May 2016. That December, the board approved a $561 million project list that included nearly $85 million for a new Cross Keys High School.
In April 2018, the board voted 4-3 to place that school at the former Briarcliff High property, 2415 North Druid Hills Road. The existing Cross Keys campus was supposed to become a middle school.
The Briarcliff school was never built.
In May 2024, the board approved an initial $44 million construction package for an addition and modernization at the existing campus. In March 2025, the approved project total reached nearly $148 million.
The district held a formal groundbreaking on Aug. 28, 2025, although its project schedule dates construction activity to March 2024. Students are staying on the campus while the work continues.
The capital ledger now carries a $165.6 million estimate at completion.
The comment window is the only part of this a parent controls, so use it on the thing that is actually uncertain. Do not just argue about which line your street lands on. Ask, in writing, at every session between now and December: what is the percent-complete figure on this building as of the most recent quarterly report, what is the listed construction end date, and what happens to my child's assignment if that date moves again. Then go read the next quarterly status report yourself when it posts. Those reports are public, they are dated, and they are the only document in this whole process that has to say the same thing to everybody.
