you know they will try; it has been proven!

They were given an outrageous fortune in bond funds. There is a considerable amount of funding in non-M&O accounts. Why did they spend a small fortune on enhancing an elementary school and decide to moth ball it?

The level of tax digest doesn't matter. If the school can justify the need for more funds, they can raise taxes. But the problem with this BOE will be coming up with a reasonable argument for it.

You had better pay attention to the House of Rep. District 72 race. The state legislature wants all school money going to Atlanta first for them to hand out later. We'll take a beating on that.

We need that money - I get it. But has this board been responsible thus far with "the money"? Seriously, look at some of the decisions that have brought us here. Why are we moving all these children and faced with these issues? The BOE bought land to built a school in the wrong place! We needed "the money" then too - in a bond referendum. Millions for a new school, we'll fix the old ones too, and then oops we're under capacity. Get more of "the money" to hire a consultant, manipulate a committee, get them to suggest closing a school in the last 3 meetings because we really have an agenda and are just keeping up appearances. Shuffle these cattle over here, some over there, hey we’re in charge, parents only supply “the money”. BS! Wanted: Fiscally responsible board of ed - that's the truth. Vote these people out.

The Brooks parent got it right on the "lack" of money. With SHM going to 400 kids that will be quite a few empty classrooms. People who wanted to keep E. Fayette open will be sorry as a taxpayer next year with all the empty classrooms. The consultant advised the county that this would happen if the public was allowed to influence the process, but people are after the immediate gratification of having their kids where they want them. No one is looking at the big picture of empty classrooms. Some schools will still have trailers & others empty. What a waste of money.
One of the parents at the redistricting meeting announced to her group she would sell her home if the children from E. Fayette came to her school! She knows who she is & we all overheard her. We can thank that mentality for the future tax hit we will take.

Yes the school system is in bad financial health – all of its own making. Bennett’s Mill is “bleeding the system dry” according to a Board Member last week. Again not making use of a facility built in the wrong place. A 12th hour decision last year not to the send Highgrove to Bennett’s Mill has resulted in running a half empty facility. Balancing schools was one of the criteria the committee stuck to. Now it is being ignored with Peeples and Minter the exact same way it was ignored with Rising Starr and Bennett’s Mill. You don’t have to be a brain surgeon to see politics at work. Despite the efforts from the expert and the committee the board will rule the way it wants. If you don’t like your tax dollars being wasted time and time again vote in a “smart” and fiscally responsible Board in 2008

My question is why is everyone so h***bent on staying in the south complex?? Highgrove should have gone to BMMS, and should also go to Minter. If map BA is approved, Peeples will have 700+ and Minter 426 (and those #s might change if WWC ends up staying at Peeples or going to Braelin. And, personally, I don't think that they built BMMS in the wrong place, they just needed to do a better job in redistricting the kids.

Have any of you not consider the fact that the reason Whitewater might be screaming so loud is because Newhaven and Highgrove aren't being sent to Minter. They are all in the same area but I have sat through those meetings and Sweat has pushed only Whitewater to Minter, the others have been taken care of. My children get pushed out of Braelinn for no reason if Whitewater is sent to Minter. Plus, I think it's insane to think that those few kids will do the trick at keeping Minter at 400 kids. I know some of those families will put their kids in private school or home school simply because they don't want to be moved again and again. That neighborhood alone will not fix the Minter situation.

The committee had Whitewater and Highgrove together at Minter! Why did the Board undo that? It had Minter & Peeples at even enrollments. So if WW can take some other neighborhoods, they are happy. That is what the old map B had & it was undone last week by who knows who. How many kids will Braelinn have with the Board's map?

400 kids at Minter is not right. That is about 55% capacity. That is not acceptable.

Sam Sweat and CW Campbell are doing the maps, not the board. The board told them to adjust the maps after the Public Forum. The 2 new maps AB and BA are Sam Sweat's work just as the original ones were. He manipulated the rezoning committee with the first maps. After thursday's work session he was told to fix them again because they still don't make sense. Sam Sweat is in charge of this operation. You could tell Dr. Decotis was clearly separating himself from Sweat at the thursday meeting. I would say to be careful what you throw at the board as far as the maps, this was his brainchild.

All this explains why Sam Sweat was in such a bad mood during the committee meetings. He knew that this was just an exercise in pacifying the public after the last Bennett’s Mill debacle. At the end of the day these maps are all his with input from Decotis. There was always a different map presented each week compared to the map that the committee had worked on the week before. I am sorry for the committee who completely wasted their time and the tax payers who paid an expert for advice that was disregarded.

My children get pushed out of Braelinn for no reason if Whitewater is sent to Minter.

Is that because Highgrove would be at Braelinn?

No, WW goes to Peeples if Highgrove is at Braelinn.

Lakeside and Lakemont should also be kept together at SpringHill, which would keep some numbers out of Minter, if the board would study the map and do what Dr. DeCotis suggested to them and keep the NPU together they could find a way to move less kids, less moving means that these schools could also continue to be the same schools we know them this year, so these kids don't have to continue to be moved between the same schools over and over again everytime they redraw the lines. East Fayette needs to stay open to allow for the growth the will happen in Fayette County again, if they close the school without all the studies that should have been done long before this being suggested by a parent committee then there would be more answers then QUESTIONS that are going unanswered. Board members do the right thing KEEP EAST FAYETTE OPEN, study the poll numbers.

Wow... you actually get it. Too bad so many others don't! It's there wallet that will feel it.

Was there really a plan to improve East Fayette or is that your wishful thinking to keep East Fayette Open? You must be from the Spring Hill district. So Sad, So Sad!!! Scared of Title 1 Money...

The county will still get the Title 1 $$ regardless whether they keep E. Fayette open or not per Ms. Watson. My child does not attend Springhill, but I understand their concerns!!!

2.5 million dollars has been spent, I would say yes there was a plan in place to improve East Fayette it was named as one of the schools to improve for the 2004 bond and the money ask for in that bond has been spent on that school. Keep it open and allow the children to enjoy the money the school system has spent.

Please what changes... a new kitchen... the toliets overflow... the playground is a safety hazard and there is a building that is used that is not attached to the school it's self. Show me where the improvements are. You wouldn't want your kids there.

I guess you are from one of the schools that your children will not feel like they are too attending a new school with more then 1/2 the children they have attended school with for several years gone, East Fayette needs to remind open because when people start moving back in the the county and there is no room at your child school you will be the first to complain. East Fayette is in town and there will be more growth there, if the board really wants to close a school close Brooks which is out in the country.

Well, Map BA makes people happy with keeping E.Fayette open, but it really does a number on Minter parents. Map BA has 400 kids at Minter!!! How can that possibly be cost effective? You're going to pay a principal and all the staff to have 50% capacity? Give me a break. This is awful. What happened to the committee's map B having equal percentages? This really looks like some politics got involved here. What neighborhoods screamed the loudest for this? I wish I was at Minter next year - it's like a private school! How lucky for those 400 kids.

Doesn't feel like a mall then!
Use a circuit rider principal! Or an acting teacher principle. They all used to be that way when schools were smaller.
We protect the extremely too large chain of command too much now.

smaller schools aren't always good. Look at it from the perspective of the teacher who has a smaller budget because the school is small and the budget for the school is small because the county got less from the state... Wow...Brilliant! Plus a principal who teaches a Kindergarten Class too... did you forget we were talking about elementary schools??? You must not know much about running a school.

You know the song...money money money money???? Some subdivisions don't want to got to Minter because they don't want to cross Hwy 85. Give me a break!! Buses do it everyday!! Already there are subdivisions going to SHM that are on the opposite side of 85. That is such a lame excuse that people see right through it. Right now Whitewater Creek is zoned for SHM in map BA, but I would bet dollars to doughnuts that they will either stay at Peeples or go to Braelinn. If that happens, SHM will probably be under 400 while capacity is over 700.

Next school board elections will be interesting!!

Wow! What an absurd comment. Obviously you are unaware of what happens to WWC students if they are moved to Minter under Option BA. Not only will they be out of their feeder pattern/orphaned but they will also be the only neighborhood in their NPU moved. These two issues and along with other criteria were established by the consultant and committee not WWC residents. Money has nothing to do with wanting to keep kids in the same feeder patterns and staying in school with their long term friends. Who is the one really making an issue of money?

Timberlake and Highgrove are also moved & are in the same NPU as WW.

Could someone explain what is so bad at Sara Harp Minter? It is absurd that you would want your child to go to a school that is overcrowded as apposed to a school that is not. CRAZY in my opinion... As for the feeder pattern explanation, you can forget that. The BOE sold out on that last year when the districted BMMS. Look at the kids in Kedron Hills/Lakeside on Redwine/Lakemont--all new feeder patterns. Get off your high horses. You might like what you see when you get off.

Reverse snobbery rears its ugly head! You need to get your facts straight. Peeples and Braelinn are the schools closest to all the neighborhoods in that NPU. The splitting of the NPU means taking one of the neighborhoods and sending them to the farthest school from them and away from the neighborhoods in their NPU. Why all this hate at Whitewater Creek. Did you not notice that Highgrove completely got themselves removed from going to Minter. If money is being used, which I doubt, maybe that's where its coming from. Whitewater is still unresolved and Sam Sweat has made clear in all those meetings that he has an agenda to get Whitewater at Minter. What's right about that?

Booth was the school closest for our kids not Bennetts Mill Middle. That is not even a valid argument these days! The kids on Steven Entry will now be possibly going to Crabapple, distance is not a factor. Talk about splitting a NPU. Maybe the lawsuit WWC is planning will make a difference. Maybe that will change how these things are handled in the future.

I have read through all of these comments and am shocked at the obvious reverse discrimination being displayed openly about Whitewater Creek. None of you are on here complaining about the other parents from the other schools who have spoken out about not wanting to be moved (for instance, the Georgian Park people). Just WWC. Is that because they happen to live in nice houses? Are people who live in nice neighborhoods not allowed to speak up for their children? I know I moved to this area of town specifically so I could send my kids to Peeples. Why? Because Peeples is an EXCELLENT school. I'd be furious if my kids were being moved to schools that were further away, especially just for a game of musical chairs.

fayettevillefamily

When Minter was opening 6 years ago, the boundaries were Redwine and Bernhard. WWC somehow got "grandfathered" in to stay at Peeples. Redwine and Bernhard were,and still are, natural boundaries. That being said, I agree with what you said about Highgrove. With 200 plus kids it is a major player. That's why I asked previously if anyone knew the Braelinn #s. I did hear though (thru the grapevine) that WWC has sent some really nasty letters...to the board and Sammy. Maybe that has something to do with it?? I know that I have personally heard them say some nasty comments (loudly under their breath) at the meetings.

Rumor and hearsay add up to lies and myths. Unless you know something to be true, you should keep it to yourself. By the way, Whitewater was left at Peeples because they had been moved 5 times prior to that and had opened 3 schools. Someone else's turn.

Trust me...WWC is not the only subdivision that happened to...but I guess that'e what happens in a growing community.

I can help you on that one. It's the Cowan connection.

Is that why Newhaven hasn't even been mentioned in any of this?

I heard at a meeting that neighborhood has 6 kids. Not enough to help anything out.

Then they should go where Whitewater Creek goes!!!

Before our school was built, our subdivision was at a elementary school and then went to a Middle school that 99% of their elementary peers did not go to and you know what? They did just fine and met more people, thus making even more friends (their "old" friends and "new" friends) I am tired of hearing about "orphans".

But, in this redistricting, map AB has Lakeside removed from their feeder pattern/npu. So, WWC is not the only ones.

P.S. I,for one, hope that WWC does get to stay at Peeples!

The kids

If Whitewater does not go to SHM, they will be at 325. A building built for 763 @ 325 - an excellent use of my tax $. Politics, politics, politics. Peeples is currently at 710 on map BA, so why not add 85 back in & keep it overcrowded!

Out of curiosity, do you know what the Braelinn #s are for each map?

What school is SHM?

I yam what I yam....Popeye

SHM is Sara Harp Minter.

thanks, I knew the Minter, I forgot the Sara Harp part.

I yam what I yam....Popeye

The Board should vote in map BA with very minor tweaks. This would fulfill all of the stated goals. IF in the near future they want to close/repurpose/whatever they want to call it East Fayette, then the Board should look at that AFTER doing all of the necessary legwork (cost/benefit analysis...) Then, if it is decided to do that, then Springhill, Minter & Inman should be able to absorb those children.

Then what happens to the staff that is there now? Do we offer them packages at the tax payers expense? They have to do it now or never. East Fayette does not offer the same ammenities that the new schools have and it's the oldest in the county 52 years old and you want students to stay there. Wow, only in the South... Hmm... could it be that some people are afraid that cushy Spring Hill might become a Title 1 school? Is that what you're afraid of? I hope the board votes on Monday so you people can find something else to moan and groan over.

Closing East Fayette at this point in time should never have even been an option!!! The committee was asked to present new school boundaries to incorporate the 2 new schools that were being built and that was it!!! Not to reccommend closing a school - especially since NONE of the preliminary work was done (ie would we lose money with 34 unused classrooms...) THIS WORK NEEDS TO BE DONE BEFOREHAND!!!!!! Oh, and by professionals!! Not by the average citizen who volunteered to be on this committee.

You move less students and yet you have more empty classrooms with no one using them. Classrooms that still have to be heated and kept up. Wow what a huge waste of money... tax payer's money...