By the beginning of next year, all of Coweta County's classrooms will be equipped with at least one computer workstation.

In its continuing efforts to keep the school system on the cutting edge of technology, the Coweta County Board of Education Tuesday night approved spending $1.1 million to purchase 683 Windows computers and 291 Macintosh computers to keep the system speeding down the information superhighway.

The funds are coming from the Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax voters approved earlier. Superintendent of Education Richard Brooks said it's a very exciting time for the school system.

"All of our teachers will now be connected to our Wide Area Network and have e-mail and Internet capabilities. By the first of the year, we should have a lot of excited teachers," he said.

When asked if he saw any compatibility problems in purchasing both Windows and Macintosh machines, Technology Director Gary Waters said there was software available to allow the machines to interact.

"I'm staking my reputation on the compatibility issue," he said.

With nearly 1,000 computers set to be delivered to the school system in November, board chairman Mike Sumner said the logistics in installing the computers must be a nightmare, but Brooks did not foresee any problems.

"The vendors will do the installation and we're going to try and get them put in during the Christmas break," he said.

The school system will conduct a lottery later this year to determine which lucky teachers will have the computers installed first and Brooks added the vendors are offering a unique opportunity for the system's educators.