It’s the time of year that parents and school administrators dread: Redrawing school boundaries for the opening of a new school.

The Fayette County School System announced this week that all middle and high school attendance boundaries will be readjusted to accommodate the opening of the 1,187-student-capacity Bennett’s Mill Middle School on Lester Road next fall.

Currently, the system has more than 13,000 students in middle and high schools, but spokesperson Melinda Berry-Dreisbach said not all of the students would be affected by the changing lines.

“Some will stay where they are, but we do have to fill up the new school,” she said.

Earlier this summer, the Fayette County Board of Education directed the formation of a committee charged with drawing new boundary lines for Bennett’s Mill Middle along with Fayette’s existing five middle and five high schools.

Berry-Dreisbach said the committee wants to hear suggestions from the community about how the new lines should be drawn. Parents can make comments by going to the school system’s Web site, www.fcboe.org, and clicking on the link for boundary suggestions.

For those without Internet access, residents can call the Fayette County Board of Education, 770-460-3535, to be connected to someone who will take their suggestions over the phone.

Residents will have until Oct. 10 to submit their suggestions either online or by phone, Berry-Dreisbach said. She said a final decision could be made on the new lines by the end of the year.

She added that boundary approval is a two-step process. The first step involves the presentation of proposed boundaries to the board of education. This is only to accept the recommendation, not for approval. Once the Board of Education receives the proposed boundary changes, the proposal will sit on the table for one month prior to the board of education taking action.

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