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What’s really news at school and in Fayette

By J. FRANK LYNCH

One of the biggest challenges facing folks in the news business day in and day out, other than remembering how to spell, is figuring out what the news really is.

Back in journalism school, they taught us to apply the old “Man Bites Dog” test to potentially big stories. That is, a story about a dog biting a man isn’t really a story at all; it happens all the time. But a man biting a dog? Well, that’s rare and interesting enough to warrant further investigation, and maybe good enough for the front page!

And so it was last week, when the various media around town reported on “record” enrollment figures released by Fayette County schools for the current term.

Pardon me for pointing out the obvious, but if just one more child were enrolled this year over last year’s highest total, wouldn’t that be record enrollment? And while I have no way of proving it, I’d bet my next paycheck that every fall for the past 25 years, and likely long before that, we’ve seen “record enrollment” in Fayette County schools.

In other words, “record enrollment,” like a dog biting a man, is not necessarily news.

The Citizen’s version of the story told you that while enrollment was up, the 1.7 percent rate of growth was so dramatically slower compared to recent years that Superintendent John DeCotis had put off plans to build any new elementary schools in the county anytime soon.

From September 2003 to Aug. 17 of this year, just 385 new students were added to local classrooms, so few they wouldn’t fill up a single elementary school.

In comparison, Henry County added more than six times that many, with 2,500 more students over a year ago!

In fact, the number of students enrolled in the elementary grades throughout Fayette actually DECLINED slightly during the past year, with the biggest drops coming in Peachtree City neighborhoods: Braelinn (-68), Kedron (-55), and Oak Grove (-62).

Nobody is absolutely sure of the reasons, but Peachtree City appears to be suffering from the fallout of aging. As kids grow up, mom and dad stay put. Plus, the cost of new housing in the county is so prohibitive now, many younger families with elementary age children can’t afford to live here. Established families with kids already in their teens are more likely to move in these days.

That’s why we’ve seen a net increase of about 400 students in the middle and high school grades.

DeCotis is right when he says the middle schools are overcrowded and need relief. In fact, the middle schools are about the only place in the county where you’ll see trailers these days.

A brand new middle school and additions to Rising Starr are at the top of the projects list should voters approve a construction bond referendum in November.

DeCotis gave credit to the “controlled growth” policies of local governments for keeping enrollment in check.

Did you get that? “Controlled growth.”

Because for all the wailing and gnashing of teeth that goes on around here about how “out of control” growth is in Fayette County, in a lot of ways nothing could be further from the truth.

A couple of weeks ago, the Atlanta Regional Commission released its annual estimate of population growth for the entire metro area. You might have missed that story, but it was a bombshell.

According to the ARC, Fayette County grew by a grand total of 500 people during the year ending in April 2004. That’s a growth rate of about one-half of 1 percent.

With apologies for picking on Henry County, our neighbors to the east added more than 9,000 people during that one year ending in April, a growth rate of more than 7 percent.

So you see, despite more and more people and endless traffic jams, things aren’t as out of control in Fayette County as some doomsdayers and nay-sayers would like you to think. The reasons are many, but the bottom line may very well be that controlled growth policies put into place years ago are working.

Imagine that!

What nobody could have predicted years ago when those strict land-use plans and zoning ordinances were adopted was that Fayette County would become a destination.

Who knew that Peachtree City’s industrial park would employ thousands, yet the majority of those workers would not be able to afford to live here? Or that the city’s restaurants, conference centers and amphitheater would become reasons for folks in Atlanta to drive south past the airport?

And no crystal ball in the universe could have foretold that we’d one day be home to Georgia’s largest shopping center. At 1.7 million square feet, the sprawling monster known as Fayette Pavilion draws 60 percent or more of its shoppers from somewhere else every day.

All that’s enough to fool you into thinking growth is going unchecked. Perhaps it is, in some respects. But while my hometown is far from the place it once was, it’s still got a lot worth sticking around for.

Next week: Why Fayetteville isn’t turning into Riverdale.