200 tell BoE, ‘Make better plans’

Tue, 12/04/2007 - 4:52pm
By: John Thompson

200 tell BoE, ‘Make better plans’

Both proposed options to shift hundreds of elementary school students into different schools need more adjustments, most folks said to the Fayette County Board of Education.

Bearing signs and wearing colorful shirts, nearly 200 residents turned out Monday night at the McIntosh High School Auditorium in Peachtree City to voice their opinions on proposed new elementary school attendance lines.

Monday’s meeting was the first chance for parents to speak, after a committee spent nearly eight months working on attendance lines to accommodate two new schools that will come online in 2008 and 2009.

Both plans offered by the committee shift at least 1,700 students next year, the biggest movement in the school system’s history.

One of the biggest issues discussed was the possible closure of East Fayette Elementary and the impact on Fayetteville’s schools.

If the school is closed, East Fayette’s students will be moved to Spring Hill, Minter and the new school in Inman. Because of the influx of the students, many of the students at Minter and Spring Hill would be moved to new schools.

“Minter will be decimated,” said Ellen Kirkus.

Under the school system’s plans, Minter could lose 60 percent of its current students, while Spring Hill could lose 50 percent. The total number of students moved under Option A, which closes East Fayette, is 2,424 or 27 percent of the elementary school population. Under Option B, which keeps the school open, 1,705 students, or 19 percent would be moved.

“Gwinnett County is moving 23,000 students, but that’s only 15 percent of their school populations,” said Mary Beth Crumly.

Another area of concern was voiced by residents of Georgian Park in Peachtree City. Residents urged the Board of Education to leave the students of the 596-home subdivision at Kedron Elementary, instead of moving them to Crabapple as advocated under Option A. Other Peachtree City concerns came from Huddleston parents.

“Just leave the line for Huddleston Elementary the same,” said Darcy Pitts.

School board members scribbled copious amounts of notes as speaker after speaker urged the system to do what is best for the students.

Jill Bond also asked the system to maintain an agreement with parents.

“Let the special permission students stay where they are. We were asked to move from a crowded school (Peachtree City Elementary) to Kedron. Honor your agreement,” she said.

Tracy Bergman also said the system needs to keep the taxpayers in mind.

“If you’ll look at the consultant hired, you’ll find lawsuits and terminated employment. Why was this committee guided down the path to close East Fayette?”

The process started in March when the committee was established to set new lines for Inman Elementary School, which opens next year. The board is also drawing lines for the elementary school on Tillman Road, set to open in 2009.

Balancing empty rooms with overcrowded schools is one of the objectives committee members used in redrawing school attendance boundary lines.

Other objectives the system presented include the following:

• To not build another elementary school for several years and to maintain the new attendance boundaries for at least five years.

• To leave capacity in schools serving areas of higher growth rates.

• To disrupt as few students as possible with the changed boundaries.

After more than two hours of comments, board Chairman Terri Smith closed the meeting. The board will now consider the public’s suggestions and meet on the issue Dec. 11 at the school board meeting at 7 p.m. for a workshop session. The final vote is expected Dec. 17.

Three of the five board slots will come before the voters next November. Those slots are currently filled by Smith, Janet Smola and Marion Key.

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Submitted by timeforchange on Wed, 12/05/2007 - 10:02am.

Sam Sweat & Co. directed by Decotis are desperate to close down East Fayette for one reason only their balance sheet. Do NOT believe they are doing it for the kids. They are drowning financially in bad decisions that have all come to roost. Bennett’s Mill operating at under 50 percent capacity is killing them. Inman will be another drain on the taxpayers. Meanwhile the kids at Birch suffer another year in trailers and overcrowded conditions. Time for tax payers to demand accountability, not fuzzy math.

Submitted by nosweat on Tue, 12/04/2007 - 11:31pm.

There are many more unhappy people than you saw at the meeting, but I’m sure there are a bunch of people who are perfectly content with the lines. Probably the ones who are not affected this time around, or whose property values improve with a better school perception, or whose children's new school environment improves. (BTW where does Sam Sweat live again? What happens to his neighborhood’s feeder pattern under Plan A? Let me guess...) But if you were in the opposite boat you may squeak as loud as your neighbors are. But hey, next time we re-district and we entrust our tax dollars again to leaders who may or may not have agenda, maybe you’re home will lose equity overnight (unless you’re a renter of course), or your school will become a title 1 school, or your kid will be moved out to somewhere else, all of which might invoke a squeak from your area. All of this comes right back to the fact that we built a school in the wrong area, and everything now is trying to make flawed logic and a poor plan work, on the backs of the very same taxpayers who are funding this exercise. In the end, kids or not, property or not, money was requested to expand and improve the school system due to growth, and now we are considering closing a school?? I would expect the BOE has some exposure there and I'm curious to see what happens to them if they do go with A.

Submitted by keke_0777 on Wed, 12/05/2007 - 8:20am.

First of all if you ask any of the Committee Members they will tell you that they were not even thinking about closing East Fayette. They wanted to do what was best for the county as a whole. And if you research a little harder you will see that the reason they thought that closing East Fayette would be a possibility is because the number of student left at East Fayette would be so low that they weren't sure if it would be beneficial. And if you haven't looked around more and more schools are becoming Title 1 schools in Fayette County. There is nothing wrong with a Title 1 school. And by your comment you obviously don't know what a Title 1 school is and what it is about. And what makes you feel that you need to bash Sam Sweat on here. Do you know him? How do you know what these plans do to his neighborhood? Oh wait, you don't, your assuming. So when you do your research and know what a Title 1 school and what it’s all about and how many we have in the county (including Peachtree City limits)? And when you know why the committee thought to close East Fayette, then you are ready to post something about the subjects you spoke on.

Submitted by g8trgrl on Tue, 12/04/2007 - 9:29pm.

I think there must be a huge number of happy parents since only 200 people showed up. That really says a lot to me. With the possible movement of 2,200 kids, I would say the majority of parents are content or even happy! I was glad to see most speakers made very solid cases for why they should not be the ones moved - basically pick someone else. I was disappointed to see some parents miss their opportunity with the BoE and waste their 3 minutes on issues with no bearing on the Board's decision. Hopefully the Board will not listen to the small amount of squeaky wheels.

Submitted by hopeful on Wed, 12/05/2007 - 10:29am.

Have you reviewed the poll numbers from The Citizen? It shows most people that have voted want East Fayette to remain open. I'm sure more parents would have attended, however, there are children to consider and if they were unable to get a babysitter they were in hopes that someone would state their feeling on the process or as a neigborhood they had someone to speak for them. Which I was at the forum and I felt there was a good amount of different views discussed for the board to make a good decision on the public view points.

Submitted by heatjam on Tue, 12/04/2007 - 9:57pm.

I too was really surprised on how few people did come to the meeting, although it was a school night. However, subdivisions were told to have 1 speaker talk for the majority opinion so that may have dissuaded some people from coming. I have personally been to several of the meetings and in both maps we are staying right where we are. My gripe is as a tax payer and how the committee was led seriously astray by Sammy. At the beginning of this process I was defending it to anyone who would listen. I liked the fact that the Board hired an outside consultant who was just going by the numbers and not by socio-economics, etc. Too bad that all seemed to go by the wayside. But hey...at least they meant well.

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