Hood Avenue Elementary principal

Diane Teer is watching her mailbox closely, hoping for delivery of a letter

from the state Department of Education that states her school has been

removed from the list of those that "needs improvement" under

the federal No Child Left Behind act.

The DOE's website indicates

local school officials were successful in proving that Hood Avenue did

meet the requirements of Adequate Yearly Progress after all.

For about two weeks, the Hood

Avenue summary page on the state's website has reported "School

met AYP," but official confirmation of that has not been received,

said Melinda Berry-Dreisbach, public information specialist for Fayette

County Schools.

She said state education officials

had admitted they were behind on the notification process, after being

deluged with appeals from districts across the state in the weeks following

the AYP release.

"We are waiting to see

how all the schools are doing on this" before making a formal announcement

locally, Berry-Dreisbach said.

Fayette County appealed the

"failing" AYP status of each of the seven local schools that

did not meet the requirements for student testing, used to determine the

progress schools are making from year to year.

Both Fayette Middle School

and Sandy Creek High School have received letters, said Berry-Dreisbach.

Fayette County High and Rising Starr, Flat Rock and J.C. Booth middle

schools have not heard updates on their status yet.

"We're still waiting

to hear back on the others," Berry-Dreisbach said.

This was the first year any

Fayette County school has been placed on the list.

The news will provide extra

relief for Hood Avenue, the only Title 1 school in Fayette County that

didn't meet the AYP criteria. Had it been given a failing grade again

next year, the Hood Avenue would have been required to allow students

to transfer to better schools at taxpayer expense.

Fayette Middle proved it was

mistakenly put the list by proving that it did test some special education

students the state said it missed. At Sandy Creek, administrators were

able to prove that enough students took the Georgia High School graduation

test after all.