Schools

Fulton Science Academy Gets Site Approval by State

The middle school still needs a charter to stay open past June, and approval of its building and site plans.

has gotten approval for the school site its board chose, and has already paid off.

"We've approved the site, that's all we've approved," said Lynn Jackson, facilities director for the GA Department of Education.

Her staff is reviewing the facility plan. But that's not the only hurdle for FSA.

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"Everything is also still subject to whether or not the school is approve as a charter going forward then end of its charter term, I think it is in June," she said.

School officials are confident, announcing the site approval this afternoon and saying the plan to move into the new building on the 44-acre campus for the 2012-2013 school year.

Find out what's happening in Roswellwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

"FSA Middle School has been operating with outstanding academic results in a converted warehouse for the past 10 years. has also been extremely successful in the second floor of a commercial office building for the past six years," said Katherine A Dion, spokesperson for the schools. "It has been a longtime goal of the entire FSA community to move the schools to a new facility with proper amenities."

Jackson said FSA will have to incorporate changes to the school building's design and site plan before it can be approved.

"One of them had to do with a vegetative berm between the school itself and GA 400. I understand the site is adjacent to 400," Jackson said. "Therefore we want a buffer there, in the event that there was some kind of disaster occurring on the highway."

She said that's one of the purposes for site reviews by the state, to make sure they are located in places that would minimize that possibility.

 The size of the school is under review by the state's architect as well. Jackson said when the site application is submitted, the school tells the state how many classrooms and how many students will be there.

"And when we approve it, we approve it for that," she said.

Jackson said her architect has done his insitutional review and has corresponded with FSA's architect.

"Now we are waiting for them to send us back their responses to it," she said. "I think we are just in a holding patter to see how things go."


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