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Lower Fayetteville Road is ‘epicenter’ for growth

By JOHN THOMPSON
jthompson@TheCitizenNews.com

It was fitting the Coweta County Board of Education held its retreat at the Centre for Performing and Visual Arts on Lower Fayetteville Road last week.

The area surrounding the center is home to thousands of residents and is causing the board fits in trying to build schools fast enough to accommodate the students.

“I know there are other areas of the county facing growth issues, but to me this is the epicenter,” said board chairman Mitch Powell.

During the retreat, the board was shown a map with the hundreds of new homes and apartments already approved in the area by the city of Newnan. When a member of the school system’s staff honed in on one street in the Summer Grove subdivision and said it housed 142 school-age children, an audible gasp was heard in the room.

“Something needs to change. We need to speak to the City Council,” said board member Frank Farmer.

The elementary school in the middle of the growth area is Newnan Crossing, which is already well over capacity. The board has plans to build another school on mary Freeman Road, but does not have enough funds in hand from the SPLOST to build the $11 million school.

Powell asked the board to try and think of possible solutions to deal with the growth issue until the school can be built in 2006.

One solution offered by board member Brian Roy was the possible revitalization of a building that formerly housed the old East Newnan Elementary School. School officials pledged to look at all the options, but said that refurbishing an older building could cost more than the classrooms it would provide.

Another possible option is to do a mini-redistricting of students until the Mary Freeman school is built. But if the board pursues that option, some students could go to two or three different elementary schools during their elementary career.

“We’re just going to have to deal with this the best we can,” Powell said.

The board plans to discuss the issue further at the Feb. 8 board meeting.