Fayette County

is adding a school this year. Well, sort of.

The county

is not actually opening a new campus this fall, but enrollment for the

2001-02 school year is up nearly 600 over last year almost the equivalent

of an elementary school.

Enrollment

figures for the coming year, as of Monday morning, total 20,403 students.

That's an increase of 571 over the 19,832 students enrolled last year.

The first day

of school for the 2001-02 academic year is Aug. 10.

To accommodate

this growth, the school system has added 64 new teaching positions, which

will bring that total to 1,438.

While there

are no new schools set to open this year, next year should be a different

story.

Ground has

been broken for Cleveland Elementary, on Lester Road on the western edge

of Fayetteville, and school system officials hope to open it to new students

next fall, according to spokesperson Melinda Berry-Dreisbach.

Two other schools

already on the drawing board include another elementary school and the

county's fifth high school, both of which are to be situated along Ga.

Highway 85 south of Fayetteville. A construction bid for the elementary

school was officially accepted by the Board of Education at its July meeting.

Both of these

schools should be open within three years, if not sooner.

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