Don't forget the Kiwanis Fairgrounds that the school board bought (60acres). How about the wetlands behind Whitewater? We still own that too. Oh yeah, let's not forget the 12 acres where the school board thought about building the aquatics center with SPLOST $ for the YMCA to run.

Let's see have I missed anything...that's right, the land for Janet's pet project, the magnet high school off of Tyrone Rd.

I hear real estate values plummeting even further here in Fayette County...Oh the economic engine of the county...the school system crashing and burning.

What a shame...we should have watched and demanded better for our kids, the employees and all of the citizens...

I am getting so darn frustrated, but cannot do anything about it. Rivers Elementary is desperately needed! I bet most of you commenting about it do not have a problem of overcrowded classes. My son and the whole 2nd grade are in trailers at Burch! The teachers can't teach properly under these conditions. We are the only school suffering. I have been paying my taxes as much as the south Fayette area, yet my son is forced to try to learn under terrible circumstances! These trailers have one small window! It is cold in winter and hot rest of time. when a/c turned on, cannot hear instructions from teacher! someone please come take a look at what we endure at Burch. We have 200 students over capacity, but seems those numbers are not told to anyone! How about we transfer all of Burch to the new school? the new school would hold all of Burch. maybe no trailers needed. Logical analysis are not being made. This is so terrible and we are definitely not looking at all the options. Why not use Burch as the satellite school?? No one seems to have common sense though to figure this out. So political. Apparently we don't have any say on the north part of county. As long as everyone else is happy must be ok. We will never grow in this area if people look at our school situation. who wants their child to attend an overcrowded school? I only stay because the teachers are the best at Burch!!!!

Mamadutt, there is a reason for all those trailers at Burch.

Back in 2006, the Board of Education hired an expert in redistricting. He came at a very high price, and delivered a fair and equitable plan, one that required a lot of students moving but would mean there would most likely be no further need to redistrict for a decade or longer.

Think of the numbers on a clock, 1 through 12. Many students would have to move counter-clockwise in the county. There was one HUGE problem, though. The expert's plan called for residents of the huge Lakeside and Lakemont subdivisions to move from "2 o'clock" to "12 o'clock", and as such, they'd be forced to start attending Fayette County High School instead of Whitewater High School.

The residents of Lakeside and Lakemont organized a huge protest campaign, as was their right to do. They wanted things to stay exactly the same.

Unfortunately, the School Board caved in to pressure from these two subdivisions. They basically threw out all the recommendations that the highly paid expert had made.

Since Lakemont and Lakeside had "won" by having the board "freeze" their position at "2 o'clock", this meant there would be a tremendous backlog somewhere between "3 o'clock" and "7 o'clock" in the overpopulated areas.

The School Board decided that Burch elementary would be the "loser" so that Lakeside and Lakemont could "win"... we now have a lopsided county with empty schools and overcrowded Burch with trailers.

And this is solely because your School Board opted to listen to the loudest arguments, not the best arguments.

Listening to Terri Smith whine at last night's FCBOE chaotic board meeting, it's becoming clear why decisions are never made.

"Nobody could have known that 40 years of growth was going to vanish overnight!"

Uh, Terri? Peachtree City was built out in 2005....it's now 2009. Welcome to the party.

"We were operating in good faith! GOOD FAITH!"

I'm sure the developers were very pleased with your "good faith".

Didn't they spend it all? Isn't that why the county is in such a terrible state?

and you will hear the lecture that Smola gave to all present as to why there are no reserves. The State has passed along austerity cuts for the past 5 years after the budget has been set so they HAD to use the reserve to come up with the rest of the money. Instead of planning ahead in the next years budget for the inevitable cut and plan spending cuts, they continued on the same path. The "rainy day fund" is now dry and we are in the midst of a downpour. Fayette County is the ONLY system in the state that is not only cutting staff, but also going to vote on Thursday for an across the board pay cut and benefits cut to its employees. The entire budget shortage for next year $14.5 million will be shouldered by the employees. Employees are paying for this fiscally mismanaged school system. Does this system have too many "chiefs" at the county office and not enough "indians" that actually know what they are doing?

From 2004 to 2007 the financial reports (CAFR) show a $5 to 6.5 million fund balance at the end of each year. In 2008 the revenues were $3.8 million less than budgeted and the fund balance was reduced to $1.7 million at the start of this year. The district did not make adjustments as the state made austerity cuts over the last several years.