The vote is in. Eighty percent of Fulton County voters March 20 said yes to a renewal of the school system’s one-percent sales tax that carries a $893 million ceiling. The one-percent Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST) renewal is slated to bring eight new schools to south Fulton.

“Fulton voters overwhelmingly approved the extension of a one-penny sales tax for education on March 20,” school officials said Wednesday. “Approximately 99 percent of all precincts have verified their counts, with the final voter margin being 80 percent in favor of SPLOST.”

The continuation of the one-percent tax will bring eight of Fulton County’s 14 new schools to south Fulton. Five of the seven planned elementary schools would be built in south Fulton, with one in north Fulton and one in Sandy Springs. Two of the four new high schools are planned for south Fulton, as is one of the three new middle schools. Major classroom expansion projects are planned for two elementary schools and one high school in south Fulton.

SPLOST improvements for other existing south Fulton schools include upgrading or replacing items such as carpet and flooring, intercoms, roofing, gutters and downspouts, bleachers, work on rest rooms and cafeterias, emergency generators, gym lighting, fencing and sidewalks, repaving projects, synthetic turf, basketball goals and sound systems.

Superintendent James Wilson said the affirmative vote is a way to obtain needed funding without raising property taxes. It is estimated that 40 percent of the tax will be paid by non-Fulton residents who travel to the county for work, shopping or other activities where they spend money, school officials said.

Beginning in summer 2006, Fulton County schools also broke ground on a new high school, middle school and elementary school in south Fulton. Those include South Fulton High School on Hall Road, Jones-Hall Middle on Hall Road and Oakley Township Elementary School on Oakley Terrace.

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