Don't expect to see those portable

classrooms disappearing from Fayette schools anytime soon.

"We're four or five years

behind right now," said John DeCotis, superintendent of schools,

as local Board of Education officials broke ground for the second of three

new elementary schools planned as part of this year's bond referendum.

"We'll reduce the number

of trailers [with the new schools]," but we won't eliminate them,"

he said. "We're going to have to continually be behind the eight

ball" for years to come, he said.

School construction is behind

the curve for a number of reasons, DeCotis said, including the fact that

new people are moving into the county faster than schools can be built.

Voters' rejection last year

of a special sales tax to fund this latest round of school construction

pushed construction further behind, he said.

"We appreciate their support

[of this year's bond]," he said, "because it got us out of a

bad situation."

Another factor is pressure

from the state to reduce class sizes, DeCotis said. The state Legislature

has passed laws requiring school systems to lower pupil-teacher ratio

to 19 to one. Fayette has allowed some classes in upper grades with as

many as 25 students, he said.

"That reduces the capacity

of the buildings. A school built for 600 may hold only 500 now,"

he said.

According to planners at the

Atlanta Regional Commission, Fayette is expected to keep growing until

it reaches build-out, around 2020, and DeCotis said portable classrooms

probably will be a reality at least until then.

Members of the Board of Education,

along with DeCotis and assistant superintendents Robert Oliver and Stuart

Bennett and facilities director Mike Satterfield joined architects and

engineers last week in the ground breaking ceremonies for the school on

Ga. Highway 85 south at Lisbon Road.

The school is under construction

on a 149.4-acre site that includes room for a future high school. The

94,179-sq. ft. structure is expected to house 800 students and will have

47 classrooms plus art, music and physical education spaces.

Architect Richard Burton of

dwb architects-engineers inc. said those involved in the project are hoping

to have the school ready for the 2002-2003 school year.

"We're going to push real

hard to have it ready," he said.

The school will have a farm-sized

front yard, he said, because the soils at the front of the property, along

Hwy. 85, were most suitable for septic lines. "I think it will be

a nice setting for the buildings ... it'll have a pretty view," he

said.

With minor changes due to new

state regulations, the building will be identical to the Cleveland Elementary

School, also under construction on Ga. Highway 54 at Lester and Huiett

roads.

The school board is pursuing

purchase of a site for a third new elementary school, 54 acres on Ga.

highway 74 north at Dogwood Trail.

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