More than 300 residents jammed the Willie Duke Auditorium at Starr's Mill Tuesday night and gave the Board of Education an earful about the proposed boundaries for next year.

Armed with homemade signs and wearing stickers, the more than 80 speakers blasted the board and school officials for destroying communities while trying to populate Bennett's Mill Middle School next year.

Some of the sharpest criticism came from Peachtree City residents who couldn't understand why the board would move a few subdivisions in north Peachtree City to the new middle school in the center of the county.

“We’re less than two miles from Booth and have 15 students in our subdivision. Our neighborhood has been chopped in half,” said Stoneybrook Plantation representative Mike Mitchell.

Peachtree City Mayor Harold Logsdon said residents of his city realized that it was a county school system and that Peachtree City was “unique, not elite.” he added the city would do everything in its power to find a site for a new middle school if the board agreed not to send the students out of the city to Bennett’s Mill.

One of the largest contingents at Tuesday’s meeting was from the Lakemont and Lakeside subdivisions in Fayetteville. The group was fine with being shifted to Bennett’s Mill, but was not happy about having the high school boundary changed from Whitewater High School to Fayette County High School.

“Leave us at Whitewater. Stop splitting families up,” beseeched Elimi Kinngozi.

Speaker after speaker walked to the two microphones set up in the chilly auditorium and made the case for why students should not be moved.

Phil Boswell was one of four residents who represented subdivisions on Robinson Road that would see their children shifted from Booth to Bennett’s Mill.

“We’re 752 paces to the crosswalk at Booth. There will still be 175 empty seats at Booth next year,” he said.

But it was not only the parents who offered their opinions Tuesday night.

“You did not follow your own instructions. I’m not sure I would pass you,” said student Robert Eifert.

School officials at Tuesday’s meeting repeated the Power Point presentation from the previous week and said the boundaries had to be changed to accommodate the new middle school and to alleviate overcrowding at the county’s schools.

Committee chairman Sam Sweat said the committee started work on the proposal Aug.12 and received more than 800 responses from the community.

“Boundary lines have to be changed in a growing community,” he added.

By the time the meeting ended shortly before 11 p.m., the few remaining parents wanted to know the next step.

Board chairman Terri Smith said the committee would evaluate the comments and make a recommendation to the board for a final vote in either November or December.