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Board puts halt on new students at Newnan Crossing

By JOHN THOMPSON
jthompson@TheCitizenNews.com

The Coweta County Board of Education is getting serious about the overcrowded conditions at Newnan Crossing Elementary School.

During Tuesday night’s board meeting, the board decided to pass an immediate redistricting of unbuilt neighborhoods in the fast-growing Newnan Crossing Elementary district.

Board chairman Mitch Powell said there are nearly 3,000 homes planned for the Newnan Crossing subdivision and that something has to be done.

In response to Powell’s challenge, the board said 14 planned neighborhoods along the Lower Fayetteville Road corridor would send their students to surrounding schools for one year, effective immediately. The temporary move is intended to prevent overcrowding next year at Newnan Crossing Elementary.  The temporary redistricting will remain in place only until Mary Freeman Elementary is built and a general redistricting can be accomplished for the 2006-2007 school year.

Any new residents who move into the planned or under-construction neighborhoods would attend White Oak, Poplar Road or Jefferson Parkway elementary schools through the 2005-2006 school year only.

Under the temporary move, Madison Park and Madison Park at Newnan Lakes on Lower Fayetteville Road are districted for Jefferson Parkway Elementary through 2005-2006.

Camden Village, Southwind, Summerlin, Golden Gate and Stonebridge neighborhoods on Lower Fayetteville Road are districted for White Oak Elementary School through 2005-2006.

Fox Ridge, Parkside Village, Lakeshore, Amesbury Park, The Preserve and Christian's Corner neighborhoods are districted for Poplar Road through 2005-2006.  The Olmstead neighborhood, still under construction, is currently districted for Poplar Road Elementary School.

Bus transportation would be provided to the temporarily redistricted neighborhoods.  New homes in the Summergrove neighborhoods will remain in Newnan Crossing Elementary School next year.

“We need to get the word out to all the real estate agents and closing attorneys in the county,” said board member Mike Sumner.

Additionally, the board also asked that current Newnan Crossing Elementary School parents be surveyed to determine how many would move voluntarily either to Poplar Road, White Oak or Jefferson Parkway elementary schools on a space available basis for the 2005-2006 school year.

The board also moved up the timetable for construction of Mary Freeman Elementary Schoolwhich will help end the overcrowding at Newnan Crossing. Construction on the school will start this summer, with an opening slated for August, 2006.

The school will will be built in the Olmstead subdivision, southeast of Summer Grove, in the fast-growing Lower Fayetteville Road area.

The board decided to fast track the school after hearing a report from Comptroller Keith Chapman.

Chapman said that current levels of Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST) collections should result in $10 million to $12 million in “pay as you go” construction funds through 2007. The current five-year SPLOST will sunset in June, 2007, and the first collections on the SPLOST are dedicated to a $30 million priority construction list and retiring approximately $35 million in pre-SPLOST construction bonds.

Chapman said the $10 million in funds projected beyond those priorities would allow for the financing of the new elementary school.  The school system will also apply for partial state funding for the school, but will not know if those funds will be made available by the state until late in 2006.

“We’re now able to handle the cash flow it will take to build the school,” said Superintendent of Education Blake Bass.