Wednesday, December 12, 2001
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Wednesday, December 12, 2001 |
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900 students affected by redistricting By DAVE HAMRICK
Some minor changes may be made to proposed school district maps following Monday's public hearing, said assistant Superintendent Stuart Bennett. Parents in six neighborhoods along McIntosh Trail asked the Board of Education to consider leaving their students at Huddleston Elementary School rather than moving them to Oak Grove Elementary as originally planned, and Bennett said he will probably recommend that change. "It's not a burning need to move them at this time," said Bennett. "We were trying to balance the population at Oak Grove a little better, but the numbers just aren't that great," he added. Prior to the hearing, Bennett announced that he had already recommended leaving 120 students in Tyrone Elementary School. The students, in neighborhoods north of Peachtree City and east of Ga. Highway 74, were originally targeted to move to Burch, he said, but that was because there were plans for a new school in the West Village area of Peachtree City opening in 2003-04. Now those plans have changed and school officials are looking for a school site near Tyrone. Once those plans are finalized, that school will be able to take the pressure off Tyrone Elementary, he said. "We can't propose to have 600 students at Tyrone," he said, because the school's septic system wouldn't handle it. But for next year, the students can stay, he said. Under the redistricting plan, about 900 of Fayette's 20,000-plus students will be moving from their current schools into two new elementary schools Cleveland Elementary on Lester Road in west Fayetteville and Minter Elementary on Ga. Highway 85 south of town. The next big move is slated for 2004-05, when a new high school next to Minter Elementary is opened. But parents at Monday's hearings seemed pretty happy with plans for that redistricting. Opening of the fifth high school will allow a true feeder system to develop, with the entire population of each middle school feeding into a single high school, keeping those student bodies together. Several parents speaking Monday echoed support of the feeder concept and praised the board's high school/middle school plan. The only change in that plan Bennett announced Monday is inclusion of several neighborhoods around Jeff Davis Drive and Ga. Highway 92 south in the new Lisbon area school and Whitewater Middle School.
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