Bad Links?
Other glitches?
Notify Webmaster

SPLOST vote decision nears

By JOHN THOMPSON
jthompson@TheCitizenNews.com

Coweta County school officials moved a step closer this week to calling for a vote on the extension of the Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax.

Board members had discussed the issue during its March meeting. The Coweta County Board of Education Building and Grounds Committee met Tuesday to discuss more details of the extension.

The current one-cent Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax approved by voters in 2002 is scheduled to end in June, 2007.

Public Information Officer Dean Jackson said Superintendent Blake Bass and his staff have met with Coweta County and city officials to gather information concerning future growth in the county, including current growth patterns and population densities and possible future home construction filed with local governments.

“The first thing we had to know is where we are now,” said Bass. “We have met with the principals and School Building Leadership Teams at each of the schools to discuss their classroom and renovation needs, and talked with the maintenance personnel at the schools, because they know their schools very well.”

Jackson said some of the projects discussed Tuesday were the construction of up to three new elementary schools, new ninth-grade classroom wings at each of the three high schools, a new middle school, and some classroom expansions at existing schools to keep up with high rates of student growth in Coweta County.  A SPLOST project list would also include a number of renovations, additions and modifications at the county’s 28 public schools, as well as student transportation, school equipment and land purchases for new school construction.

Comptroller Keith Chapman said that the current SPLOST is expected to bring in between $78 million to $80 million by the time it ends in 2007, based on current monthly returns.  At least 5 percent of annual revenue growth of a future SPLOST would result in up to $100 million in revenues for school construction through 2012, he said.

Jackson said that $60 million in short-term bonds could be issued on the total anticipated amount to finance construction of a priority list of projects. That list could include two new elementary schools, new classrooms and renovations at Eastside Elementary School, and 25-classroom “ninth-grade campus” expansions on the three high school campus.

“A lot of the criticism that we hear is ‘where is the planning for growth and construction?’” said Bass.  A renewal of the SPLOST this summer “would allow us to plan for projects between 2005 and 2012” to better keep up with the county’s growth, even as projects under the current SPLOST are completed, said Bass. It would also allow the school system to plan for and begin a schedule for renovations, modifications and upgrades to existing schools.

The board will discuss the issue further at its regular April 12 meeting.