By the middle of November, Fayette County parents should have their first glimpse of new districts for three overcrowded elementary schools.

Superintendent of Education John DeCotis announced during Monday night’s school board meeting the school system had started the process of looking at new district lines for the county’s schools.

The three overcrowded schools, Peachtree City Elementary, Peeples Elementary and Burch Elementary will have new attendance lines for the 2006-2007 school year. DeCotis said the system has created a school rezoning committee, comprised solely of staff members, that is currently studying the boundary lines.

Additionally, the committee is looking at middle and high school attendance lines for the 2007-2008 school year, when Fayette’s newest middle school opens. DeCotis also said the elementary attendance zones would be looked at and changed in a few years when the system opens two new elementary schools in the fall of 2009.

“Our goal is to try and disrupt as few students as possible,” said DeCotis.

The committee plans to unveil the maps Nov. 14 at the Board of Education meeting. Maps will also be available at all the schools, the county’s Web site and on local access cable. DeCotis emphasized he wanted as much parental involvement as possible.

According to school spokesperson Melinda Berry-Dreisbach, Peachtree City Elementary has 550 students and a capacity of 512, while Peeples has 832 students and a capacity of 737. She said Burch’s capacity is 662 students, but currently has 727 students.

The criteria the committee is using to evaluate the new lines includes preserving new schools, effectively using the transportation system and moving as few students as possible.

The system hopes to vote on a final proposal in December, which caused some concern for board member Janet Smola.

“That’s a really busy time of year,” she said.

DeCotis explained that’s how the board did it during the previous redistricting efforts and it seemed to work well.

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