Tyrone Elementary School on track to re-open

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Present at the Jan. 21 meeting of the Fayette County Board of Education were, from left, board member Barry Marchman, Superintendent Jody Barrow, Chairman Scott Hollowell and board members Roy Rabold and Leonard Presberg. Board member Brian Anderson was not at the meeting. Photo/ Ben Nelms.
Present at the Jan. 21 meeting of the Fayette County Board of Education were, from left, board member Barry Marchman, Superintendent Jody Barrow, Chairman Scott Hollowell and board members Roy Rabold and Leonard Presberg. Board member Brian Anderson was not at the meeting. Photo/ Ben Nelms.

A Jan. 21 vote by the Fayette County Board of Education set in motion the potential to re-open Tyrone Elementary School in the near-term future.

Board members voted 4-0 to enter into an intergovernmental agreement (IGA) with Tyrone to have the town connect the school to its sewer system, which is soon to be installed along Senoia Road. The connection cost totals $274,962.

Mayor Eric Dial said the sewer project along a portion of Senoia Road, which will also serve the new Town Hall, is expect to be completed in the fall.

“This is one of the first steps to look at in the next couple of years to re-open the school,” Superintendent Jody Barrow said at the meeting.

Like the former Brooks Elementary, Tyrone Elementary is a small school in terms of student capacity, and will likely see some degree of expansion prior to the school re-opening.

The elementary school was closed several years ago, along with three others in the school system, after student enrollment across the school system dropped significantly in the years following the Great Recession. And additional issue that led to the closure was a significant problem with the school’s septic system, a problem that will be alleviated with the connection to sewer.

After the closure, students living in Tyrone were redistricted to schools on the north side of Peachtree City.

More recently, board members have considered the idea of re-opening Tyrone Elementary with the development of a new, large subdivision underway in the west village area of Peachtree City.

Re-opening Tyrone Elementary would take student enrollment pressure off the Crabapple Lane, Kedron and Peachtree City elementary schools.