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Palmetto wants better schools

By BEN NELMS
bnelms@TheCitizenNews.com

The Palmetto City Council joined ranks Monday with Union City and Fairburn to voice their concerns to the Fulton County School Board over school construction and quality of education in South Fulton.

The principle issue cited in the resolution was the disparity in school construction and renovation between north and south portions of the county, both funded by a voter-approved one-percent sales tax. While approximately 90 percent of sales tax-funded school facilities in North Fulton have been completed or are under construction, only about 20 percent of school facilities in South Fulton have reached that point, the resolution said.

For the past several years the mayors of South Fulton have participated in a task force that monitors funding and facilities in the north and south areas of the county, Mayor Clark Boddie said after the Monday council meeting. He said the timing and content of the resolution was appropriate. Boddie acknowledged, as did Union City Mayor Ralph Moore and Fairburn Mayor Betty Hannah previously, that the school board might disagree with the position taken by elected officials in South Fulton municipalities.

“It is our true belief that there is an inequity is the south portion of the county,” he said. “It’s the school board’s job to defend their actions but we just wanted to get their attention, to let them know that we are concerned.”

The school board’s moratorium on facility construction has only exacerbated the overcrowding in South Fulton schools and has had a disproportionate impact on South Fulton students due to the relative status of projects in the two areas of the county, the resolution said.

“We don’t want to see any more mobile classrooms located around our schools. Most of the schools in existence now have room for expansion of the facilities without bringing trailers in,” said Boddie. “I realize they’ve put some kind of moratorium on new building because of some concern about the funds and how they are being adequately spent, but I expect that to get resolved and for them to get back on board.”

Also cited in the resolution is an educational imbalance that is further demonstrated by unacceptably high drop-out rates that are approaching 40 percent and the reality that the majority of schools in the Fulton system that failed to meet state-required Annual Yearly Progress are located in South Fulton. Unless immediately remedied, those inequities will only increase.

“We’ve met with them in the past and we hope to meet with them and the new superintendent in the future and we are expecting some resolution to this situation,” Boddie said. “And I’m confident that we’ll arrive at a resolution to these issues. I know the population is growing in North Fulton, but it’s also doing the same in South Fulton, so that means we’re going to have to be prepared. And I say let’s prepare for tomorrow today.”