Parents, prepare your students for some changes, including the schools they attend.
The Fayette County Board of Education at its March 18 meeting is expected to vote on the redistricting lines that will follow the closures in June of three elementary schools and one middle school.
The redrawn lines will affect thousands of students across the county.
The vote will be the final action in what has been a long-fought battle by some parents to keep Brooks Elementary School and Tyrone Elementary School open. Fewer in number in recent months were the advocates for keeping Fayetteville Intermediate School and Fayette Middle School open. The vote to close those schools came on March 4.
And though four schools will close, the redistricting that accompanies those closures will affect many of the county’s elementary school attendance boundaries.
Pertaining to the change in attendance zones due to the closures, school system spokesperson Melinda Berry-Dreisbach said the proposed school attendance maps are posted on the school system’s website at www.fcboe.org. Adjustments to the previous maps have been made along the way following public input. The board will take a final vote on the attendance maps at its regular monthly business meeting on March 18 at 7 p.m., Berry-Dreisbach said last week.
The meeting will be held at the Sams Auditorium located at the Lafayette Educational Center on Lafayette Avenue.
The closures are part of the effort by the school board to trim approximately $15 million in expenses in the 2013-2014 budget that begins in July.
By far the largest of the historic cuts facing the school board are yet to come. Those cuts will come in the form of school system employees, perhaps as many as 250 or more, who will lose their jobs at the end of the school year. The school board will hold a called meeting on Feb. 25 to discuss personnel allotments for next year.
