On Feb. 8

of this year, the Coweta County Board of Education

adopted new boundary lines for seven of their 15

elementary schools, effective this fall.

The plan was hotly

contested by many parents in the high growth area of East

Coweta who allege that the plan represents little more

than the special interests of the buyers and sellers in

SummerGrove, the latest mega-development of Pathway

Communities.

Most of the controversy

centers around the redistribution of Newnan Crossing

Elementary's current 81 percent minority and 74 percent

lower income population via a 25-classroom addition,

moving 90 students out of the district, and bringing 360

students in from the White Oak and Poplar Road districts,

which are predominantly white and middle to higher

income.

Other observers, some at

the national level, have hailed the plan as cutting edge

integration by social class.

For many parents in Fayette

County, the story is a painful reminder of bitter

boundary wars in the past, and a not-so-welcome harbinger

of what the Fayette school system may face in coming

years, though Fayette's percentages of free and reduced

price lunches compete with Columbia County for the lowest

in the state.

The Coweta plan represents

a new twist on an old theme. In the past, to insure equal

access to education, busing was an accepted method of

integrating racial minorities into predominantly white

schools.

Since a 1995 Supreme Court

case, Adarand Constructors, Inc. v. Pena, established

that "all racial classifications...must be analyzed

a compelling governmental interest, and must be narrowly

tailored to further that interest," most instances

of busing along racial lines have been abandoned as

unconstitutional.

The Coweta plan uses

economic status as the criteria for integration, based on

the belief that lower income children will perform better

educationally when mixed with higher income children.

Opponents argue that low test performance is simply being

diluted by higher performing schools.

One parent whose children

attend East Fayette Elementary is sympathetic to this

theme and asserts that parent involvement, not

necessarily student performance, is the key factor

missing in schools with a high concentration of lower

income students. He believes that the school system will

have to address this issue in isolated pockets of Fayette

County where there are higher concentrations of

single-parent families, dual-income households, and

multifamily housing. He states that the lack of parental

involvement is by economic necessity, not a lack of

desire to support a child's education.

The Fayette County

Superintendent of schools, Dr. John DeCotis, stated

recently in a community round-table meeting that the

Fayette philosophy continues to be one of "community

schools," with students generally attending the

school closest to their homes. However, as density

increases, a school's capacity is maxed in ever shrinking

boundaries.

Dr. DeCotis, when asked if

the completion of a 13 classroom addition at North

Fayette Elementary will necessitate new districting,

indicated that the majority of those classrooms are

already spoken for as replacements for the trailers

outside. DeCotis said, "It will probably be the

2001-2002 school year before we look at some

changes," after the state Department of Education

and the Facilities Study Commission recommendations are

completed. He recognizes that citizens often buy homes in

certain areas to go to certain schools, and "when

you try to move people, they get upset."

Coweta County's plan may be

innovative, but it stops short of being wholly

altruistic. Jefferson Parkway Elementary will lose 200

middle to higher income students, leaving a population of

411 students after redistricting, 300 of whom are

currently receiving free or reduced price lunches, the

standard indicator of economic need in public schools.

The real untold story,

though, is at Coweta's Ruth Hill Elementary. As one of

the seven schools targeted for redistricting, this

school's new lines are virtually identical to the old

boundaries.

The school is currently 77

percent minority and 75 percent low income which will

change little, if any, under the new plan. Their test

scores are just as compromised as those at Newnan

Crossing.

When I asked Spencer Luckie

in the Coweta County superintendent's office why no

remedy was offered at Ruth Hill, she said, "I guess

no one over there complained."

That's a cutting edge plan

all right.

[You may contact Amy

Riley via her e-mail address: [email protected] .]