With 450 new students showing

up for classes each year, the Fayette County Board of Education is facing

one of its least favorite and most controversial tasks: Redrawing school

attendance lines for next year.

The board has set one public

hearing on the proposed attendance zone changes for which speakers must

sign up beforehand.

But the board doesn't want

to hear "negative comments" about neighborhoods, schools, students

or educators, according to the "attendance boundary guidelines"

distributed at the Monday meeting. The limitations are "to ensure

that the meeting generates constructive ideas and suggestions," the

board document said.

The board has scheduled a special

called meeting for next Monday, Dec. 10, at 7 p.m. in the Fayette Middle

School gymnasium, 450 Grady Ave., Fayetteville, to allow public comment

on the proposed lines. The board is expected to vote on the new districts

at its regular meeting the following Monday, Dec. 17, two weeks after

the new attendance maps were first unveiled to the public.

Assistant Superintendent Stuart

Bennett presented the maps with the proposed new lines at the school board's

meeting Monday afternoon, and spent a few minutes explaining how the committee

that researched the issue came to its conclusions. There was no public

comment or board comment after Bennett's presentation.

The changes being recommended

are intended to meet the needs of the system, which is growing at a rate

of about 450 students per year, for five to six years, Bennett said.

The proposed new lines have

kept movement of young people between school districts to an absolute

minimum, Bennett added, although he went on to say that more drastic changes

could be necessary in several years as growth continues.

Another high priority in the

process was to keep from splitting up neighborhoods or subdivisions, and

while that occasionally made for some unusual lines, that was accomplished,

Bennett said.

In compiling the information

needed to draw the maps, school officials spoke to municipal officials

as well as builders and developers to get the most accurate possible information

on future development, Bennett said. The maps reflected this, as each

district was identified with actual current school enrollment as well

as numbers of approved building permits signifying future possible residences,

Bennett said.

The elementary school districts

for the 2002-03 academic year include two new schools that are coming

on line next fall Sara Harp Minter Elementary on Ga. Highway 85 south

of Fayetteville, and Cleveland Elementary on Lester Road on the western

edge of Fayetteville.

School officials expect Harp

Elementary to open with as many as 620 students, Bennett said, putting

it close to the normal elementary school capacity of 800. Cleveland Elementary,

in the center of the county, should open with far fewer students, but

that district could be adjusted to ease the load at surrounding schools

and plenty of residential growth is expected to continue in that area

in the meantime.

The following year's map includes

an elementary school slated for the West Village area of Peachtree City,

called the Katz Area school by officials at Monday's meeting. Current

projections show that school could open with about 450 students for the

2003-04 school year.

The middle school and high

school maps are unique in that they are essentially the same map. Drawn

to show lines for the 2004-05 school year, when the newest high school

opens in the Lisbon area south of Fayetteville, the maps are uniform throughout

the county, with no overlapping between middle schools and high schools.

Thus, Fayette Middle feeds Fayette High, Flat Rock Middle feeds Sandy

Creek, Booth Middle feeds McIntosh, Rising Starr Middle feeds Starr's

Mill, and Whitewater feeds the new school, as yet unnamed.

School officials project that

Fayette County High, currently the most populous school in the county

opens. Fayette County High's current enrollment is 2,168.

Local citizens are encouraged

to attend Monday's public hearing and voice their opinions on the maps

now being proposed, and some comments could lead to changes being made

before the Dec. 17 vote.

Parents and community members

wishing to address the board will need to sign up before the meeting begins.

A sign-in sheet will be placed on a table outside the gym, and only those

who sign up will be permitted to speak, in the order in which they sign

up.

Speakers are advised to avoid

asking many questions, since the board will be there strictly to listen

to their opinions, although staff will be available to answer general

questions if necessary.

Each speaker will be limited

to five minutes, so that everyone who wishes to speak has an opportunity

to do so. Negative comments about neighborhoods, students, personnel or

schools will be withheld.

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