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Board of Education orders hearing to close East Fayette this fallTue, 01/29/2008 - 5:02pm
By: John Thompson
By the end of May, the last students to ever attend East Fayette Elementary School could be bidding the structure a farewell. In a dramatic turn of events Monday night, the Fayette County Board of Education instructed Superintendent of Education John DeCotis to schedule public hearings in February for closing East Fayette Elementary by this coming August. Originally, the school was being considered for closure in the 2009-2010 school year. DeCotis said the system’s facilities plan shows the system with a surplus of elementary units and said the state will once again be cutting funding for education. The dire financial predictions led to a discussion that could see Fayette’s oldest school building closed, so the system can reap the savings from closing it this year. The campus is set back from Ga. Highway 54 in Fayetteville, just east of the Jeff Davis Drive intersection. The issue was discussed after Director of Facility Services Mike Satterfield explained the system was working on a new five-year facilities plan with state officials. State education officials predict the system will grow by 414 students, for a total of 2,070 new students in five years. He explained the system would have 190 surplus instruction units, and if East Fayette was repurposed, the number would drop to 154. With the excess units, the system would not have to consider a new elementary school with in the parameters of this facility plan. DeCotis added that the system was again looking at huge budget cuts from the state, and closing East Fayette a year early could save the system between $644,000 and $800,000 in staffing costs, since the administration at East Fayette would move to the new Inman Elementary. The board wondered if there was enough time to close the school and DeCotis said the decision would have to be done by the time of the system’s Feb. 19 winter break, in order to meet staffing requirements. Since the item was not an action item, DeCotis said he would need consensus of the board to set up public hearings to discuss the closing of the school. The board agreed to tentative dates of Feb. 11 and Feb. 13 at the county office at 7 p.m. to get the public’s opinion on the proposal. Board member Lee Wright said he didn’t want to rush the process of deciding what to do with the property if it’s closed, since he believed it could also be sold. On Dec. 17, the board approved the latest set of elementary school boundaries and left East Fayette Elementary School open for the 2008-2009 school year. On Monday night, the board did not discuss any boundaries, but if East Fayette closes this year, the board could turn to the map that was drawn up for the 2009-2010 school year. That map features students at Lakeside and Lakemont subdivisions on Redwine Road southwest of Fayetteville leaving Spring Hill Elementary School and moving to Minter Elementary. The influx of East Fayette students would push Spring Hill’s population to nearly 700 students, if the board uses the 2009 students. East Fayette was originally built in 1955 when schools were segregated by race. It served as the main campus for black students in grades one through 12 and was known as the Fayette County Training School. After integration, the buildings were repurposed as a junior high school and later as an elementary school. login to post comments
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