City attorney unsure if council has power to establish group

The Peachtree City Council has agreed to further study the possibility of creating an education commission comprising city residents.

Several council members questioned whether or not the city could establish such a volunteer body since it has no control over school issues. Those decisions are left up to the elected Fayette County Board of Education.

City Attorney Ted Meeker said he’d have to look into the matter further, but he wasn’t sure if the city had the power to start such a commission since it doesn’t have any governing authority over school issues. It’s also possible that such a commission would have to be authorized by an act of the Georgia General Assembly.

Resident Cele Eifert told council last week that she proposes the commission to be completely advisory in nature. School Superintendent John DeCotis has already signed off on the idea, she added.

Eifert proposes that the education commission would be responsible for serving as a liaison between city residents and the school board.

The effort to create a education commission for Peachtree City comes on the heels of some dissatisfaction with the way recent attendance boundary lines were changed for middle schools to accommodate the opening of the new Bennett’s Mill Middle School next year.

Some parents are upset their children will be attending Bennett’s Mill instead of J.C. Booth Middle School. Eifert said her children attend Booth and McIntosh, and she is currently president of the Parent Teacher Organization at McIntosh and is the former president of the Booth PTO in addition to being a substitute teacher.

Eifert noted that among the current five school board members, none of them live inside the Peachtree City limits, so there are concerns of whether or not the board can take the city’s best interest to heart.

The matter will be discussed later in a workshop format with Council. But some last week suggested it would be better for such a commission to be an arm of the school board instead of the City Council.

Eifert said she envisions the commission not just handling matters pertaining to the school system, but also to preschools not overseen by the Board of Education. For example, the commission might decide to promote having the schools’ pre-K programs become nationally accredited, Eifert said. The commission could also work on post-secondary options for city residents, perhaps working to have a community college located in the area, she added.

“It’s a terrific idea,” said Councilman Stuart Kourajian. “Let’s just find out the best way to do it.”