On eve of SPLOST vote, Fayette schools are 1,328 students short of filling all available desks in elementary schools; 600 more new slots coming next year

With a $115 million education sales tax vote looming Nov. 4 for the Fayette County school system, figures show more than 1,300 empty desks in the county’s 17 elementary schools, the equivalent of two empty schools.

The system will add another 600 empty elementary slots next fall with the opening of Rivers Elementary School, whether the one-cent special purpose local option sales tax passes or not.

Middle schools in Fayette have 500 empty desks, school system figures show.

High schools, on the other hand are about 350 students over capacity — the most overcrowded being Whitewater High School.

Whether those same high schools will be overcrowded in the future is questionable, given the enrollment declines and current empty desks in the feeder schools below the high school level and the continued economic downturn that has stalled population growth locally.

Enrollment in Fayette County public schools has fallen below projections due to several factors, school officials have said in recent months. Those numbers are also reflected in the capacity figures for the 2008-2009 school year.

Other factors should also be taken into account, and with those factors in place the future is in good shape, said Superintendent John DeCotis.

Current enrollment at Fayette’s elementary schools is 1,328 under capacity. Approximately 700 of those desks were projected to have been filled according to the Georgia Department of Education’s 5-Year Facilities Plan, said Fayette School System’s Facilities Director Mike Satterfield.

The projection is based on factors such as housing starts and housing sales, Satterfield said. The economic downturn that began last year and resulted in little growth in the county offset the numbers of students that were expected to fill many of those desks, he said.

Contacted Tuesday, DeCotis said that the current state of the economy, including in Fayette County, cannot be overstated in terms of the way it has affected enrollment and, consequently, the number of empty desks.

The number of empty desks was also increased by a large number of out-of-county students removed from Fayette schools last year and Special Education students that left the system to attend other schools, DeCotis said.

Information provided by the school system showed that 15 of the county’s 17 elementary schools are currently under capacity. Of those, seven schools have fewer than 100 empty desks.

Among those are Braelinn at 28 students under capacity, Peachtree City at 50 under, North Fayette at 71 under and Tyrone at 86 under.

Seven schools have more than 100 empty desks. These include Crabapple at 145 under capacity, Cleveland at 165 under, Oak Grove at 105 under, Brooks at 189 under and Spring Hill at 210 under.

Two elementary schools are currently over capacity. Those are Huddleston at 18 students over and Burch at 71 students over.

A tally of each elementary school shows the specific numbers, under or over capacity, for a net under-capacity of 1,328, about the equivalent of two elementary schools.

The figures do not include Rivers Elementary, scheduled to open next year with an estimated capacity of 600.

Fayette calculates capacity differently than DOE due to the county’s stance on maintaining smaller class sizes. Satterfield said other factors such as smaller class sizes for Special Education, Gifted, and some Fine Arts programs tend to affect capacity numbers.

In all, Fayette views capacity at approximately 15 percent fewer students than what DOE numbers reflect.

Using those local calculations, a survey of capacity numbers at the county middle and high schools showed 548 empty desks at the county’s six middle schools and an over-capacity of 366 students at the five high schools.

Capacity numbers do not include the 24 portables at high schools that contain 25-28 desks each, Satterfield said.

Commenting on the over-capacity numbers at the high schools, DeCotis said the upcoming 1 cent sales tax vote in November includes the addition of new wings at Whitewater and Sandy Creek high schools.

DeCotis added that when Bennett’s Mill opened in 2007 every middle school in the county was over capacity.

Referencing both the past and future, DeCotis said economic conditions have changed in the past five years and they will change again.

“Nobody predicted the change in the economy that resulted in slowed growth, fewer families moving to the county and empty desks at the elementary schools,” he said. “When it comes to schools, we have to build for the future regardless the current conditions. ARC (Atlanta Regional Commission) has slowed the forecast but we are still expected to have a lot of growth in the future. The West Village in Peachtree City and the planned growth for a lot of homes in the center of the county are examples of that. For the future, we’re in good shape. We won’t have to build any schools for a few years.”

The following are the numbers of students above or below capacity in Fayette County elementary schools:

The following are the numbers of students above or below capacity in Fayette County elementary schools:

Braelinn: -28
Brooks: -189
Burch: +71
Cleveland: -165
Crabapple: -145
Inman: -109
F’ville Inter.: -28
Hood Avenue: -53
Huddleston: +18
Kedron: -25
North Fayette: -71
Oak Grove: -105
Peachtree City: -50
Peeples: -24
Minter: -129
Spring Hill: -210
Tyrone: -86

Numbers of students over or under capacity at Fayette County middle and high schools:

Bennett’s Mill Middle: -457
Booth Middle: -7
Fayette Middle: -140
Flat Rock Middle: -48
Rising Star Middle: +87
Whitewater Middle: +14
Fayette County High: +5
McIntosh High: +274
Sandy Creek High: +99
Starr’s Mill High: +124
Whitewater High: +489