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Some want a PTC-only school system; Lakly: ‘Not likely’Tue, 11/21/2006 - 3:59pm
By: John Thompson
Now what? For nearly two months, many Peachtree City parents have been consumed by the Fayette County Board of Education’s redistricting efforts that will now send 125 students from Booth Middle School to the new Bennett’s Mill Middle School on Lester Road. But after last Monday’s meeting where the new attendance lines easily passed, many parents and residents are wondering if the fight is over, or just moving to the next step. “We’re looking at alternatives. We sure don’t want this to ever happen again,” said Cele Eifert, who was one of the vocal opponents of the new lines. Eifert said parents’ groups spent hundreds of hours trying to convince the board that there were other alternatives, but the proposals didn’t make any headway. “We just felt like everything we did fell on deaf ears,” she added. For now, different groups of parents are looking to file an appeal, but they are also casting a wary eye at the next big battle. “The redrawing of the elementary lines next year is going to have a huge impact and we want to make sure our voices are heard then,” she added. Another of the vocal parents against the new lines is Angela Newton. Newton serves as Booth’s PTO president and is just stunned that the requests of the community were ignored. “This is a very educated group of parents and we were just vilified,” she said. Newton said the parents are still “very angry” about the decision and are looking at all their options. One of the options that has been mentioned is starting a Peachtree City school system. Starting a new school system would require a bill passing the General Assembly, which doesn’t seem to have any traction at the current time. Georgia Rep. Dan Lakly, who lives in Peachtree City, said there was no way Peachtree City will get its own school system approved by the legislature. Part of the reason is it wouldn’t be cost-effective, Lakly said. And, “I think the local school system is terrific,” Lakly noted, adding that his three children went to Fayette schools. Lakly said he knows it will be difficult for students who have to change schools. “But the new school will have better technology and in the end it will be as good as any other school,” Lakly said. Lakly said Peachtree City parents should be more worried about the potential effect of the proposed West Village annexation than on students being redistricted to attend a brand-new school. Lakly said he was worried about the changing demographics at Booth Middle School and he’d like to see the school board work with the city on enforcing Peachtree City’s regulations against several families living in the same household as one way to cure the problem. “I’m for less government, not more,” Lakly said. –Staff writer John Munford contributed to this article. login to post comments
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