Protect Milton Update

Here is an update from the community group, Protect Milton. Lisa Cauley and other community representatives for Protect Milton, have requested an official environmental investigation of the 116 acre new High School site on Freemanville Road. The Department of Natural Resources and the Federal Environmental Protection Agency have been contacted and through the DNR, the Army Corps of Engineers has also been requested to investigate Chicken Creek, Cooper Sandy Creek, the 2.5 acre Lake, and the Flood Plain associated with these Creeks and Streams on this property, prior to any septic or on site sewer management permitting, approval or premature land disturbance by the Fulton County Board of Education. We are awaiting a response from these Government Agencies and insist our formal request is granted since Chicken Creek/Cooper Sandy Creek is part of the Little River Watershed and considered State Waters.

Our community group, Protect Milton, would like to propose a question to our community regarding this chosen school site for our City. Is anyone wondering about where your children will be attending High School? If you are under the impression that if you live in Milton your children will automatically attend the much accredited Milton High School, you need to reconsider. There is every indication from the BOE's comments in the newspapers that once the new high school is built, the BOE will shift attendance zones and redistrict. If you moved here so that your children would attend Milton High School, don't count on it. Most likely the majority of our children will be attending the newer, unrecognized school, which will take years to reach the caliber and accreditation of Milton High School, which is ranked 10 in the State and recently 419 Nationally.

This is something to ponder if you are not interested in this school issue, or you have not been thinking about this school site, since it may not be near your home, your children are young and it is not on your mind, maybe you don't travel down Freemanville Road or the surrounding roads on a daily basis, or live near Milton High School now and are not affected by the noise and disruptions from the existing school. All of your tax dollars will build you a new high school, but your children will not be benefiting the most from your tax money by having Milton High School on their resumes for college. Which school do you think the recruiters and colleges will be looking at?

Also, what will this school placement do to dividing our new City. Would it not be more beneficial to have only one High School for Milton since we only have 26,000 residents currently? Or is that the plan? We will have only one high school for Milton, the new one, after they redistrict and shift attendance zones. Alpharetta will have two high schools, Alpharetta High and Milton High? Wake up Milton! It seems we have a High School for our 26,000 residents now, Milton High School. It is Alpharetta that has one high school, Alpharetta High, for 60,000 residents. So who exactly are they building the new high school for? For us? so that Alpharetta students can shift into Milton High School? and our children can go to the new, unknown, unranked, High School. Are we that naive?

We pose this question to the entire community to add to the growing list of legitimate negative reasons as to why this site does not work for our new City. Again we implore the community to really think about the placement of this school, less then 3 miles on the same road as Milton High School. Katie Reeves stated they put two schools this close together in Johns Creek, however, they did this in a highly commercial area, not in the middle of a rural residential area. She is trying to compare apples to apples and it is not so. We are different, are we not? We may need another High School in this area come 2012, but not here on this piece of property. Not on this property for Environmental Reasons. Not on this property out of pure common sense, that it is too close to Milton High School.

What would it take for the BOE to use common sense to plan? Not taking the easiest route by choosing a site for a school solely on the opportunity to purchase a large tract of land from only one owner. Is this how we as citizens expect the BOE responsibly use our tax dollars to pretend to take the time out and really study our area and find property more appropriate for our City? There is land available today on Birmingham Hwy. below the Cherokee County line, 124 acres as a matter of fact, that would be better suited for our City's needs in 2012. If the developers can continue to find land all over Milton and build neighborhoods, then would it not be even easier for the BOE since they have complete jurisdiction, to find land to build a school on a more appropriate site?

The most financially responsible decision would be to remodel the old Milton High School. Katie Reeves stated in the paper that this idea would be more costly and they could not move the existing 450 students and staff. How could it be more expensive to remodel on property you already own? The stadium and ball fields already exist and the school is on sewer. They already have the remodeling plans completed from previously when they were going to remodel it, instead they built the new Milton High School at a tune of $70+ Million. All they would have to do is implement the remodeling plans or update them some. How can this idea be more costly then purchasing acreage, excavating, putting in a commercial septic system, building a new stadium and ball fields, and building the school itself.

The current Independent Students at the old Milton High School can move to the now vacant Kings Ridge Christian School site in the Alpharetta Shopping Center. This site is more appropriate for 450 students and staff over an entire High School that is not being fully utilized as it should be and was meant to be. This idea should be instilled not denied over moving 450 students. So it is more important not to move 450 students to a better environment and then rebuild this school for 1800 + students. Where in this picture do our students come first? It is inconceivable not to go back into the old Milton High School and rebuild.

It seems the BOE is more concerned about not having anyone tell them what to do and protecting their so called jurisdiction then doing what is morally right for our community and our City. How can they have a motto, "where Students come first" when they don't seem care about the parents of these students and the placement of this school? We have all given them this ability to do as they please because we have all given them the bank account to back their decisions with no check and balance. What other Federal Government Agency in America can claim over a $700 million dollar budget and have no one to answer to and no accountability even to the tax payers?

So when you read about this school issue and think it doesn't affect you or that it's just a bunch of residents disgruntled since the school is near them, think again. This issue is a City issue. This issue is a tax payer issue. This issue is a moral issue to do the right thing. There is other land available and the BOE can purchase this land with their large surplus and this land could be used as much needed green space or a Park for our City. How about letting our City Council, the Planning Commission, the Planning Committee, and the Citizen's Advisory Committee have the opportunity to do what we the citizens have elected them to do in the first place.

To sign the petition against this school site and to become more involved go to http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/new-school-site-opposition.html or contact Lisa Cauley at protectmilton@aol.com