BoE proposes moving 268 students

Tue, 11/15/2005 - 5:06pm
By: The Citizen

BoE proposes moving 268 students
Although fewer than first announced, 268 elementary school students next year will switch schools, mostly in the western and northern parts of Fayette County.

The Fayette County Board of Education unveiled proposed 2006-07 district lines for several elementary schools, and members of the public in two weeks will have an opportunity to tell the board what they think about it.

School officials stressed to the 100 or so people in the audience at Monday night’s regular board meeting — many of whom spilled out into the hallways and the lobby of the central office building — that this map was not necessarily the final product.

Referring to the phrase, “school rezoning committee draft proposal,” on the meeting’s printed agenda, board Chairman Terri Smith elicited laughter from some when she said, “Y’all see the word ‘draft’ there, right?”

The school rezoning committee was formed to address overcrowding at three elementary schools: Robert J. Burch, Peachtree City and Peeples. The proposal presented Monday would have 268 elementary students moving to new schools next August, which was down from the nearly 500 students expected to be moved earlier this month.

“You charged the committee with the goals of moving the fewest students possible, keeping them in community-based schools and redistribute students from overcrowded schools to schools with available space to accommodate them,” said Fred Phillips, who presented the recommendations to the board.

Here is how the suggested changes would be made:

• The Ga. Highway 74 area between Burch and Tyrone Elementary would be brought into the Burch district with no students added to the school.

At the southern boundary between Burch and Cleveland Elementary, 16 students in the Sandy Creek Road/Flat Creek Trail area would move to Cleveland.

At the eastern boundary of Burch and North Fayette Elementary, 54 students would move to North Fayette.

Moving a total of 70 students out of Burch would leave the school next fall with a capacity of 662 and an enrollment of 650.

North Fayette would have a capacity of 762 and an enrollment of 562, while Cleveland would have a capacity of 787 and an enrollment of 470.

• On the northern boundary between Peachtree City and Kedron elementary schools, 91 students would move to Kedron: 64 in the Pinegate area, 13 in the Golfview area and 14 in the Interlochen area.

That would leave Peachtree City with a capacity of 512 and an enrollment of 450, while Kedron would have a capacity of 737 and an enrollment of 489.

• On the western boundary between Peeples and Braelinn Elementary, 107 students in the Wilshire Estates area would move to Braelinn, giving that school a capacity of 662 and an enrollment of 610.

Peeples would have a capacity of 800 and an enrollment of 717.

The committee distributed copies of the map to interested parents and students at Monday night’s board meeting, and it was announced that full-scale maps measuring three feet by five feet would be placed later this week in each elementary, middle and high school in the county, as well as in the central office, transportation office and Lafayette Educational Center. The map is also to be placed on the school system’s Web site.

There are no plans to change any district lines in middle and high schools for the 2006-07 school year, according to the committee.

A public hearing on the proposed school rezoning is scheduled for Nov. 29, at 7 p.m. at J.C. Booth Middle School in Peachtree City.

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