Recently, I got a call from a Fayette County teacher about overcrowding at Kedron Elementary School in Peachtree City. This person was concerned that while Kedron was experiencing growth due to the Everton subdivisions along MacDuff parkway, nearby elementary schools were not as full.
This surprised me as I understood that the Everton neighborhoods were districted to the Sandy Creek feeder pattern. When I went to the FCBOE website, sure enough, the Everton neighborhoods were districted to Kedron Elementary and then Flat Rock Middle and Sandy Creek High School. The closest elementary school in this feeder pattern would be Crabapple Elementary.
Since I became involved in Fayette school issues in 2008, the capacity for Kedron was 725. Supporting schedules for the 2023 Financial statements showed Kedron capacity at 725 with 746 enrolled students or 103% of capacity. Kedron enrollment has been above 82% since 2017. Alternatively, Crabapple has had a capacity of eight hundred and had enrollment of 80% or less over the past decade.
Adding new classrooms to existing schools
In response, FCBOE recently added seven new classrooms to the existing school which pushed the official capacity to nine hundred.
It is important to recognize the wisdom of adding to existing schools versus opening or reopening (Tyrone) another school. A new or reopened school would cost more than a half million dollars in fixed costs for staff such as office, cafeteria, janitors, and such before the first teacher or student is placed. Given the current economic challenges facing FCBOE, the decision to add to an existing building is an excellent choice.
A recent enrollment report (September 9 Work Session) showed that Kedron was already at 844 or 94% of the NEW capacity. The same report showed Peachtree City at 460 (capacity 625) or 74% and Crabapple at 596 (capacity 800) or 75%. This document was interesting as it was previously a grid of numbers by type of school (Elem/ MS. HS). The new format was organized by “feeder pattern showing the elementary, middle, and high school in one row. It made sense and told a story.
Curious choice between Kedron and Crabapple
The choice to add to Kedron and not Crabapple is curious though, since the students driving the growth are not currently zoned to continue to Booth or McIntosh. Although I am not sure of the exact distance, I do not believe Crabapple is materially further from MacDuff than Kedron.
Further while Kedron has an excellent reputation, its important to say that all of Fayette’s schools are excellent and all of its children are well served.
We faced a comparable situation in the early days of Centennial (also on MacDuff). John Weiland had marketed that they had donated land for “Centennial Elementary.” A few years later the FCBOE declined to build it as it was the early days of earlier financial trouble.
We watched as the flood of students went into Peachtree City Elementary and did not crest until the system added more classrooms and a new gym raising the capacity to the current 625 from less than five hundred. Now there are less than five hundred children at Peachtree City Elementary.
What happens in this situation seems different as even older homes that are in the Kedron/Booth/McIntosh feeder pattern sell for a premium, usually to young families with school-age children. Therefore, we have not experienced the ebb at Kedron we have seen at other elementary schools.
Is new strategy to abandon smaller neighborhood schools?
However, this situation presents some reasonable questions. First, as FCBOE is making elementary schools with capacity of near a thousand, is it now the strategy to abandon the smaller neighborhood school plan that Fayette has thrived on for a very long time?
Next, if FCBOE fills schools to capacity, is the smaller class size strategy no more?
Last, what is the plan for more growth in Peachtree City with the advocacy of “affordable housing,” and the multi-family growth plans in Fayetteville?
While adding classrooms to an exiting building is a wise strategy and reflects the excellent guidance FCBOE facilities department has shown for so many years, the decision to add to Kedron instead of Crabapple is not as easy to understand.
Going forward its important for the community to understand the changes to the school system before building more space.
[Neil Sullivan is a finance/accounting executive and CPA. He recently moved from Peachtree City to Coweta County. He has been active in public school related issues in Fayette County, leading three E-SPLOST initiatives as chairman of Fayette Citizens for Children. He has appeared previously on these pages in letters to the editor.]
