Fayette students can now know

where they will go to school next year.

With a few slight modifications

from their previous form, the Board of Education Monday night unanimously

approved new maps designating school attendance lines for the next three.

Some changes were made in response

to comments at last week's public hearing and subsequent calls and e-mails,

according to assistant Superintendent Stuart Bennett, who presented the

final maps at Monday's regular school board meeting.

For elementary schools, the

board adjusted attendance lines slightly in the Tyrone-Burch and Huddleston-Oak

Grove areas to assure that subdivisions would not be split among two schools,

Bennett said.

Also, a few students formerly

designated for the new Cleveland Elementary were sent to Spring Hill Elementary

instead, so that Cleveland would feed only two middle schools Flat Rock

and Fayette instead of three.

Another line along Hilo Road

in the Fayetteville area was tweaked a bit, shuttling a few students between

East Fayette Elementary and the new Sara Harp Minter Elementary.

In the high school ranks, some

students formerly designated for Fayette County High School in the 2004-05

school year will now go to the new high school scheduled to open that

year in the Lisbon area south of Fayetteville.

Superintendent John DeCotis

recommended that students entering the fifth grade next fall who have

been drawn into a new district have the option of remaining in their old

school for that year if they can provide their own transportation. He

went on to suggest that other students be allowed to stay put if they

can provide their own transportation and their schools have room for them.

Both of those recommendations also were approved.

Another change motivated by

last week's public hearing was the elimination of the proposed school

on the Katz property on Peachtree City's west side, but DeCotis pointed

out that the property would be used in the next cycle of school construction

several years from now. "That property was donated to the school

system, and the school system will use it," he said.

He also reminded the public

that the site where Cleveland Elementary is now under construction has

enough acreage for a middle school and a high school. The county's next

middle school will be built there, and the next high school will likely

be in that area, he said.

Board member Greg Powers added

that the middle school site next to Cleveland Elementary has already been

cleared and graded, in an effort to help the school system stay ahead

of the curve somewhat and be prepared for its future use.

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