At the last two meetings of the Brooks Town Council, residents expressed their unhappiness at learning attendance zone boundaries had been changed by the Fayette County Board of Education and would affect the schools their children attend.

Before the redistricting, Brooks students attending Brooks Elementary School would attend Rising Starr Middle School and then go to Starr's Mill High School. Under new boundary lines adopted by the board in August, the elementary students entering middle school will be bused to Whitewater Middle School, beginning August 1999.

Both parents and council members said they are upset that this decision was made without consulting anyone in Brooks and that the committee making this decision did not have anyone from Brooks represented.

A proposal has been made to "grandfather" the 60 or so sixth and seventh grade students now at Rising Starr to be allowed to stay there. The decision on this is expected to come up in the November school board meeting. However, the current plan to begin sending fifth grades and under to attend Whitewater Middle School beginning in the fall 1999 school year is still in place.

"I feel that the parents were just pacified," said parent Debbie Cutts at the Brooks Council meeting. Council member Caroline Smith commented, "I feel our children are being punished."

Town council member Mike Hanson drafted a proposed letter to the Fayette County Board of Education, which was adopted unanimously. It was sent Oct. 20 and asked for a reply to the following questions: who formed the committee to redraw the lines; how was this committee selected and where do their children attend school; are there tape recorded or written minutes of the meeting; was anyone contacted who was a Brooks parent, from the Brooks PTO or the Brooks Town Council; and what information was used to determine the new attendance lines?