The committee has the unenviable task of filling a school built in the wrong place. Yes, a new school was needed, but not in the middle of the countryside where there was neither growth or children. The reason the committee was chosen to do this was to take the heat off of Sweat and Campbell. They can now stand back rub their hands and say “The committee did it” Kelly Carry said “children should never chase schools” Yet they did it with Bennett’s Mill and they are now doing it with Inman. It's a win win situation for Sweat and Campbell, they blame the committee and then turn around and say we are never having community involvment again it doesn't work. They are 100 percent accountable for this unnessesary disruption of so many children not the committee.

The BOE doesn't need an unbiased consultant to tell them where the county growth projections are, and to help them pick new school sites. (They provide this information to the consultant.) The consultant is specifically to deal with a long overdue and highly volatile issue of school redistricting. There are a lot of good schools that have been built almost on top of each other around some of the older growth areas in Fayette County, and the current lines don't make much sense in light of new growth patterns. It makes sense to utilize an unbiased, professional consultant to keep the focus on the real issues and keep the process on track, as there is a high level of personal pride in our little school district and parents tend to get very emotional about any changes.

Q."Who will staff this new school?"

A. from article "2,400 kids face switching schools?"
Tue, 10/16/2007 - 4:53pm By: John Thompson
"Carey [the consultant] showed the committee numbers indicating that closing East Fayette would save the school system about $644,000 a year in reduced staffing costs. Although the entire staff could transfer to the new Inman Elementary School, the system would not have to hire a new staff for the new school."
Adding in the savings from the energy efficiency of the new school, the disctrict will actually realize significantly more savings. The older building will more than likely be used for much needed expansion of offices and other BOE admin uses. How's that for efficiency!!!

Q. What are its [Inman's] chances of being recognized?

A. The staff will be coming from a very diverse district that has a larger population of learning challenges than most of the Fayette County schools. They are doing an outstanding job, and are already experienced and unified as a team...there is no reason to doubt that they will excell and be 'recognized' as a new school.

If you have specific questions about the process, make friends with your school's representative, and read the paper (with a grain of salt).

-Not my professional opinion, just a parent who is proud of our schools!

You're right on the money hebegeebees! Long overdue! 2 new schools coming, 3 schools overcrowded, some schools underutilized = new school lines. I think the new school percentages are very even & in the long run (5 years) this will all make sense. I hope the BoE can accept one of these maps & we can move on. The E. Fayette parents deserve a school designed for elementary kids just like the rest of this county. Let's support the board in this process. I hope the people of PTC will watch the future growth coming & stay involved. There is a 475 home subdivision coming & I wonder where those kids will go to school?

"The waste of resources on this project is monumental. Is the FCBOE accountable to anyone?"

The committee is largely made up of parent volunteers from each elementary school in Fayette County. They are unpaid VOLUNTEERS, and have spend large amounts of time working through the learning curve and processes involved in redistricting. FCBOE is accountable to this dedicated group of parents during this process, and will eventually open it up to feedback from others as well. If you want to hold the school board accountable, get involved in the process. Many, many thanks to all of the parent volunteers who have given up hours and hours of their time to work on this thankless (read heavily criticized) job. Bravo!

-not a committee member, but proud to know a few.

I am well aware of the fact that these individuals are volunteers, but my beef is with the FCBOE and their ineffectiveness. They are ultimately responsible for this fiasco, not the volunteer committee members.

If by ineffectiveness you mean that not everyone will be 'happy' with the new lines, then you have a legitmate beef. But the lines will be redrawn and take effect whether everyone is happy or not.

Generally, the unhappy parents are the ones who add that lovely and well planned element of 'fiasco' to these events.

ARTICLE STATES: "But hardly any committee members were happy with the second option, which they only got to work on for less than an hour Monday night, and hadn’t been fleshed out at previous meetings."

POST INFERRED: "Such an important decision impacting so many families and they had just on hour to work on this?"

THE TRUTH: The committee - of which I am part of - worked on "Alternative B" for one hour ON MONDAY NIGHT (of which the article speaks of, just not reflected very well) MANY man hours on Alternative B, just not enough compared to Alternative A that we feel ready to present to the Board.

Let it also be noted that when the committee worked on Alternative A, there was a learning curve that we needed to get over that was not needed when we began Alternative B, thus needing as many man hours for this 2nd alternative. The bottom line is that the committee needs more time to flesh out the 2nd alternative and is requesting more time.

Sincerely,
Committee Member