If you are a resident of Peachtree City without elementary-aged children, you may be unaware of a potential change presently affecting our city.

This turmoil is due to the impending vote on elementary school redistricting/rezoning by the Fayette County Board of Education (FCBOE) later this month.

Peachtree City’s official website boasts “Peachtree City — You’ll love to call it home!” We do!

However, we don’t love the fact that our neighborhoods are in danger of being moved to another school because the powers that be consider our children “data.”

Mr. Sam Sweat, assistant superintendent of operations for the Fayette County School System, and Mr. Kelley Carey, a hired consultant from Associated Planning and Research, Inc., have provided “data” to a “Community Advisory Committee.”

This group is composed of one representative from each Fayette County school. They have been reviewing that “data” in order to create two different plans to present to the FCBOE for all elementary school rezoning.

We emphasize the use of the term “data” due to the fact that Mr. Sweat and Mr. Carey say the process for rezoning is “data driven.”

According to Mr. Carey, the “data” he presented to the Community Advisory Committee would take into consideration demographic trends in our school system (see Aug. 16, 2007 meeting on YouTube.com — Elementary School Redistricting Fayette, GA). What the “data” doesn’t do is allow the Community Advisory Committee to use common sense.

According to information posted on the FCBOE website on Oct. 30, 2007, one of the underlying goals of this rezoning is to “balance all elementary schools (student population numbers) so there is room in each school so it can grow and not be overcrowded in five years.”

This is understandable. However, in the case of the Georgian Park neighborhoods, the county is trading apples for apples. Under the currently proposed plan, an estimated 100 students from Georgian Park would move from Kedron Elementary to Crabapple Elementary to make room at Kedron for more than 220 students from the neighborhoods of Centennial, Cedarcroft and Camden Apartments.

Georgian Park is part of the neighborhood community called Kedron Village. Centennial, Cedarcroft and Camden Apartments are considered part of the West Village. If balancing is really the issue, why remove fewer students from a smaller school (Kedron Elementary) and send these fewer students to a larger school (Crabapple Elementary)?

Crabapple Elementary is a large foot-print school, designed to support a growing student population. Centennial and Cedarcroft are still under construction. Once all homes are built, this means even more students and will overcrowd Kedron.

Doesn’t it make sense to go ahead and have these students attend the larger, foot-print school at Crabapple?

With the present proposal from Mr. Sweat, Mr. Carey, and the Community Advisory Committee, the neighborhoods off MacDuff Parkway will be attending three different elementary schools: Wynnmeade and Chadsworth to Peachtree City Elementary; Centennial, Cedarcroft and Camden Apartments to Kedron Elementary; and the future home sites of the West Village to Crabapple Elementary.

How does this foster the sense of “village” that Peachtree City was built upon? And this doesn’t even begin to address the transportation nightmare and safety issues.

We in the Georgian Park neighborhoods are tired. Tired of having to fight to keep our children in the village schools they were zoned for when we purchased our homes. We are tired of having to justify our belief that the shortest commute by golf cart to our child’s school should be an important factor when deciding school boundaries in Peachtree City.

But what we are most tired of is having to deal with a process that uproots children who are deeply ingrained in their schools and have a sense of community there.

Parents and residents of Peachtree City and Fayette County, take it from us — it doesn’t matter that you purchased your home in a certain district, neighborhood or subdivision. It doesn’t matter that your child has attended your neighborhood school since kindergarten and has the threat of being moved his/her fifth grade year. It doesn’t matter that continual building in areas of Peachtree City are not being considered.

What does matter is that the FCBOE can decide that your child is a number. If your number doesn’t fit on the spreadsheet provided by Mr. Sweat, Mr. Carey, and the Community Advisory Committee, then that is tough.

This “data” and spreadsheet have one in four children in the county moving to a different elementary school. Is this acceptable?

Change is inevitable and it’s a part of growth; but it should happen with reason and common sense.

It is possible to keep rezoning simple while moving the smallest number of children and maintaining their safety. Our school system is the crowning jewel of our county. Why weaken the public support of the school system by disrupting neighborhoods?

Regie Cameron and the concerned residents of Georgian Park

Peachtree City, Ga.