Prior to running for elected

office in 2001, Mayor Brown had started a program called Education First

in Fayette that called on locally elected officials to examine their jurisdiction's

impact on the school system. He also asked that elected officials seek

ways to alert the board of education to possible zoning changes far enough

in advance to allow a minimal impact on the local schools.

Since taking office in 2002,

Brown has refined the Education First program to include educational impact

statements, designed to give the planning commissioners and council members

a clear understanding of how rezonings and annexations affect the school

system. Land zoned Office/Institutional, Commercial or Industrial does

not account for students in the Board of Education's five-year planning

process. By rezoning the land to a residential classification, the schools

would have to absorb students they had not previously planned for in the

past.

According to the EIS for the

tract under consideration on Nov. 21, which was completed and provided

Middle School and Starr's Mill High School. An evaluation of all of those

facilities' student capacities and enrollment demonstrated that all three

schools were over capacity.

The statement also estimated

a total financial impact of $787,490.20 on the school system and Fayette

County taxpayers as a direct result of the project, and noted that additional

trailers might be required at each site to accommodate the students.

Brown noted that communities

throughout metro Atlanta are facing similar challenges as growth crowds

classrooms and raises school taxes to build and expand facilities behind

the demand for space.

"I am not advocating abolishing

rezonings and annexations," Brown said, "but I am proposing

that we work on building a relationship between city and county elected

officials, developers and the school system in a way that promotes quality

growth and quality education at the same time."

"The city/county government

and the developer are only two legs beneath the stool," Brown said.

"What we are not realizing is that our local school systems are the

third leg and without them we are going to fall over."

According to Peachtree City

ordinance, the applicant must wait six months before reapplying for a

rezoning of the site.

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