By PAT NEWMAN
pnewman@thecitizennews.com

Fayette County's Board of Education has approved a modified five-year facilities plan that provides for additions to three middle schools and asks for state funding for three new elementary schools.

Before it can be implemented, the plan must be approved by the state Board of Education, according to Fayette County School Superintendent John DeCotis. “It demonstrates the need for the capital growth money we get,” he explained.

The school facilities plan for 1999-2004 was revised to accommodate the growing student population, DeCotis said.

“Five-year plans never last five years,” added Mike Satterfield, facilities director for the school district, who estimated that the plans have to be revised about every two years.

Adding on to J.C. Booth, Whitewater and Fayette middle schools is the top priority in the plan. Whitewater is expected to gain about 18 classrooms, Fayetteville Middle 20 classrooms including science labs and a cafeteria addition, and Booth about 20 classrooms including a science room. Total cost of the additions will be between $5 million and $6 million in state growth funds, Satterfield said.

The add-ons will eliminate the portable classrooms at the middle schools, but will do little to increase student capacity, except at Whitewater.

Satterfield said the project should provide space for about 300 more students at Whitewater and may provide relief at Rising Starr Middle School, which already has eight portable classrooms. The word “redistricting” was never uttered by either the board members or staff, but it was implied.

Construction is expected to begin on the school additions in about eight weeks and should be completed by August 2001, Satterfield said. The 100 portable classrooms owned by the school district will be shuttled among the elementary schools in need of extra space until the new schools can be completed.

The distribution of funds by the state Board of Education to school districts is based on student enrollment figures averaged over 10 to 15 years. As a result, DeCotis explained, state plans and fund allocations allow districts to build for the number of students they have, not the number of students a system plans to have in the future.

Last week, Satterfield said the state approved the district's allocation of instructional units. He said when the state does an update on the district's five-year plan, “We should pick up a couple million more in state funds,” Satterfield said.

While particular schools in the Fayette County system are experiencing overcrowding, Satterfield said the state “looks at the entire school system and distributes the students among all the schools.” That means if Fayette County High School is over capacity and Sandy Creek High School is under capacity, the state won't pay for more instructional units at Fayette County High.

The solution based on state formulas is to redistribute the student population to even things out.