Atlanta Public Schools hired a former DeKalb schools administrator to guide construction projects and manage school buildings.
Daniel Drake worked as the DeKalb County School District’s interim chief operations officer before being moved in the spring to the information technology department as part of a larger reorganization.
Drake started July 14 as the APS executive director of facilities services. The position was previously held by Alvah Hardy, who died in a January car accident. Hardy had worked for APS for more than nine years, leading major building projects such as the renovation and expansion of Howard Middle School.
Drake started working for the DeKalb district in 2009. He helped plan construction projects and worked on redistricting and school closure recommendations using student enrollment forecasts.
Before that, he worked for two years as the director of public works for the city of Milton, among other jobs, according to a resume provided by APS.
Drake steps into the Atlanta position at a critical juncture. The school board had been working on a new facilities master plan to guide decisions about the district’s buildings, including which ones are needed, which properties could be sold and where new construction may be required based on enrollment trends.
That planning work was delayed after the coronavirus closed school buildings in March.
The pandemic also could impact the district’s sales-tax revenue, which it uses to pay for building projects.
Atlanta voters in 2016 approved a one-cent Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax, known as SPLOST, that was expected to generate about $464.3 million over five years to pay for construction projects, technology, transportation and other expenses.
While many of the school building projects have been completed, others remain in the planning stage. Chief Financial Officer Lisa Bracken told board members this month that the district is tracking monthly sales-tax collections to see if revenues drop below projections. If that happens, the district would likely need to reprioritize projects, she said.
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