Wednesday, January 21, 2004
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Wednesday, January 21, 2004 |
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School board, county both eye Nov. tax votes to raise $180+ million By J. FRANK LYNCH November’s general election, already certain to be overrun with a host of federal, state and local races, could also ask Fayette County voters to make this difficult choice: Increased taxes for new roads, new schools, or both? The Fayette County school system has begun the planning process for its next five-year building program, and one of the financing options being weighed is another attempt at passage of a one-cent Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax, a question that voters have defeated twice in recent years. But the Fayette County Commission says it also intends to pursue a SPLOST referendum on November’s ballot, to raise an estimated $121 million for the first phase of an estimated $400 million countywide road building campaign. The potential for competing SPLOST votes came head-to-head last week in a gathering of the county’s elected leadership. Though it is unlikely both questions would appear as SPLOST measures, a sales tax question for roads and bond referendum for school construction could compete on the ballot. The Board of Education will begin exploring what it needs to build, how much it will cost and the ways to fund the construction in an all-day planning workshop Saturday, Jan. 31, Superintendent John DeCotis said. At a called meeting Thursday night to elect a board chair and vice-chair for the year, DeCotis explained that with the opening of the $23 million Whitewater High School complex in the fall, the district’s most recent five-year construction cycle will be complete. Whitewater is the last major project funded by a $65 million bond issue approved by voters in the last Presidential election in 2000. In addition to the high school, it paid for Cleveland, Sarah Harp Minter and Crabapple Road elementary schools, as well as renovations, additions and modifications at several others. Work to build a new gym at McIntosh High and an auditorium at Sandy Creek High will carry over into next year, but those “bonus” projects are being paid for primarily with excess funds earned through interest, savings as a result of lower construction costs and other sources, school officials have said. DeCotis said Thursday night that the district’s facilities planners had been working to identify the needs between now and 2010, but he was hesitant to elaborate as to where schools might be built. A bond referendum of up to $65 million will be up for discussion at the Jan. 31 meeting, officials said. But one of the certain projects to be included is a new middle school, most likely in the central part of the county near Cleveland Elementary on Lester Road, south of Ga. Highway 54. “When voters defeated the SPLOST in 1999 that shorted us a middle school,” said DeCotis. To meet growing needs in the elementary and high school grades, the 2000 bond called for additions at three middle schools rather than constructing a brand new school. Now, at least two of those middle schools, J. C. Booth and Fayette, are overcrowded again, but not as severely as Rising Starr, which has a dozen classroom trailers. A central middle school would help relieve all three. The school board already owns acreage near Cleveland large enough for a middle school, and in 2002 bought about 60 acres from the Lester Family Trust on the north side of Hwy. 54 near Fayette Community Hospital for a future new high school. It is unlikely that the high school would be included in the next proposal, since Whitewater High won’t be at full volume for at least three more years and two nearby high schools, McIntosh and Sandy Creek, are both below capacity. Whitewater High will primarily relieve Fayette High and Starr’s Mill. Both of those facilities have been overcrowded since shortly after opening in the 1997-98 school year. Enrollment in Fayette schools has been growing in recent years by about 500 students annually, with occasional spurts of unexpected growth like last August when an extra 250 students showed up when classes resumed. New home construction is slowing in the heart of Peachtree City, but it is booming in Tyrone on the north end and in south Fayetteville. Conservatively, Fayette County Schools could enroll as many as 26,000 students by 2010, which is just six years away. Beyond facilities, the school system’s comprehensive long-range plan will be the focus of the Jan. 31 school board planning session, which will take place from 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at the district headquarters on Stonewall Avenue in Fayetteville, to save money. “We’re even having lunch donated by one of our business partners, so it won’t cost a dime,” said DeCotis. Dr. Jerry Stinchcomb, recently retired director of the Griffin Regional Education Service Agency and superintendent in Fayette County in the 1980s, will be the facilitator, DeCotis said. “It’s going to be an exciting time as we lay out our strategic planning for the coming years,” DeCotis said. The workshop is open to the public and media.
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