All week long, it was a tale told by e-mails and press releases, full of sound and fury. And, by Saturday morning, Georgia Senate Bill 458 had come to signify nothing.

That, anyway, was the explanation by State Sen. Ronnie Chance (R-Tyrone), who called a town hall meeting in Fayetteville on Saturday morning to address the furor surrounding SB458.

Some feared the bill would force Fayette County public schools to accept Clayton County students if that troubled system, just across the county line, loses its accreditation Sept. 1.

A single word in the bill triggered the uproar —- that a district "shall" accept students transferring from de-accreditated schools. State Rep. Matt Ramsey (R-Peachtreee City) intervened to change the word to "may," some 150 residents who attended the town hall were told.

Chance said it was highly unlikely SB458 would be voted on in the final four days of the Legislature. And even if did come up for a vote and somehow passed, "there is absolutely no chance Fayette will be forced to accept Clayton students," he said.

Chance, who is Gov. Sonny Perdue's floor leader in the Senate, said he and the governor have been besieged with e-mails and phone calls since the Fayette County school system alerted parents about SB458 last Monday.

"We have literally gotten hundreds of thousands of e-mails," Chance told the gathering.

"Since Tuesday, Gov. Perdue has received 17,334 phone calls from Fayette County —- and that's good. It shows the system works."

Saturday's meeting seemed to defuse the furor.

Ernie Kearns, a 53-year-old insurance agent with two children in public school, said he attended because, "I just wanted to get clarification. We've worked the last 20 years to make this a superior school system, and I didn't want to see that compromised."