If Sam Sweat and C.W. Campbell of the Fayette County School System have their way, there will be even fewer Kedron children attending their village school next fall.

The primary plan being considered to present to the Fayette County Board of Education for a vote in the next couple of weeks includes moving the neighborhoods of Georgian Park out of Kedron Elementary to make way for the West Village Centennial neighborhoods.

This plan is despite the fact that when MacDuff Parkway is completed it will intersect Senoia Road and link Centennial and the West Village with a direct shot to Crabapple Lane Elementary without ever having to set foot on Ga. Highway 74.

Crabapple Lane is one of the largest and newest of the elementary schools in the district. When it opened in 2003, several of the Kedron neighborhoods, to include Kedron Hills and Smokerise, were moved from Kedron Elementary to open the new school.

Well, I say it is time that they were moved back to their village school, and let the neighborhoods west of Hwy. 74 fill Crabapple Lane Elementary.

Crabapple is the only Fayette County elementary school located both on the west side of Hwy. 74 and within PTC limits, so it only fits that it should serve the neighborhoods located both on the west side of Hwy. 74 but still in Peachtree City.

These neighborhoods with the building of MacDuff Parkway would never have to get onto Hwy. 74 to get to school. This is safer for the buses, and lessens traffic on the busy highway during morning commuter time.

Hwy. 74 is the natural boundary between the West Village and Kedron Village. The school’s redistricting plan should reflect this.

Why Sam Sweat and C.W. Campbell do not see this, I cannot begin to understand. However, I encourage the Kedron neighborhoods that will be affected by this potential change to make their voices heard.

These neighborhoods may also want to consider the lack of golf cart access to Crabapple Lane Elementary from Kedron Village. Virtually every Kedron neighborhood via the golf cart paths will have to PASS Kedron Elementary to get to Crabapple. The ride is longer, and speaking as a resident of Kedron Hills, makes the trip impractical in the mornings.

This means more Kedron Village residents will be busing their kids to school or driving them in cars, increasing the traffic on Hwy. 74 and Peachtree Parkway. This makes absolutely no sense.

I also want to voice my objection to pushing kids out of their village school to make room for new residents that do not even live in their village. This might not be such a bad thing if there wasn’t a bigger school right up the street, and it did not mean moving out the old to make room for the new.

However, Centennial and the new West Village will be adding a potential 450-plus homes with school-age children over the next five years to Kedron Elementary if this plan is accepted.

That does not include the potential for 350-plus townhomes that could be built on Wieland’s 89 acres if rezoned.

Crabapple is a bigger school. Line up the large influx of kids with the bigger school that is also on their same side of the street. That is logical.

Kedron neighborhoods may also want to consider that even though the redistricting plan for 2008 is only affecting the elementary schools now, in four years the middle school and high school maps may be up for another shift.

Where your child goes to elementary will affect where he goes to middle and high school. The main goal of the board of education will be to simplify the feeder patterns from elementary to middle to high school.

Right now, Wieland’s new West Village is slated to go to Flat Rock and Sandy Creek. Do you think that will hold up if sent to Kedron Elementary in 2008?

I don’t know, but I have an inkling that this will be another way to push more Kedron Village students out of Booth Middle School and McIntosh High School to make room for the West Village influx. Where will that put us?

Long-term planning is a hard thing. But a good rule of thumb is that the simplest plan is usually the right one. This does not hold true with everything in life, but in this case I have heard nothing that justifies complicating things.

Mr. Sweat, Mr. Campbell, FCBOE: Make the dividing line between Kedron Elementary and Crabapple Lane Elementary Hwy. 74 North. This is the natural boundary for Kedron Village and the West Village, and should be the natural school boundary as well. In this case, simpler is better.

Kedron parents: Speak now or forever hold your peace (At least for the next five years or so). Email your comments to sweat.sam@fcboe.org or call FCBOE at 770-460-3990.

Beth Pullias

Peachtree City, Ga.