During last weekend's Coweta County Board of Education retreat in Auburn, the catch-phrase was growth.

Members of the board spent two days evaluating the future needs of the school system. Board chairman Mike Sumner said the board focused in on long term planning to try to keep up with the county's phenomenal growth.

"We're really trying to evaluate our facilities needs. We want to upgrade our current structures and plan for future facilities," Sumner said.

School board members learned the county is continuing to grow at a rapid pace, with much of the growth centered in the eastern part of the county. But Sumner doesn't believe that will last forever.

"Sooner or later, somebody is going to discover Moreland," he said.

To accommodate the future growth, Sumner wants to see the school system develop a pool of candidates for administration jobs and develop a recruitment system to lure the best candidates to the county.

Next year, Northgate High School will graduate its first class and many residents are speculating the county may be looking at sites for a fourth high school. Sumner dismisses that speculation.

"We want to assess the impact of Central Tech before we make any decision on another high school," he said.

Central Tech is the county's new vocational school that will come on-line in the fall of 2000. Sumner wants to see how many students take classes at the technical facility before he starts talking about a new high school.

The technical school has been the subject of controversy lately with Carroll Tech waffling on providing resources for the facility. The school board chairman talked with Carroll Tech officials this week and still believes there is a "commitment of resources" on behalf of the school.