RESOLUTION CALLING SPECIAL PURPOSE
LOCAL OPTION EDUCATIONAL SALES TAX REFERENDUM
A RESOLUTION OF THE BOARD OF EDUCATION OF FAYETTE COUNTY, GEORGIA RELATING TO THE IMPOSITION OF A ONE PERCENT SALES AND USE TAX AS AUTHORIZED BY ARTICLE VIII, SECTION VI, PARAGRAPH IV OF THE CONSTITUTION OF GEORGIA AND PART 2 OF ARTICLE 3 OF CHAPTER 8 OF TITLE 48 OF THE OFFICIAL CODE OF GEORGIA ANNOTATED; SPECIFYING THE PURPOSE FOR WHICH THE PROCEEDS OF SUCH TAX ARE TO BE USED; SPECIFYING THE MAXIMUM PERIOD OF TIME FOR WHICH SUCH TAX MAY BE IMPOSED; SPECIFYING THE MAXIMUM COST OF THE PROJECTS TO BE FUNDED FROM THE PROCEEDS OF SUCH TAX; REQUESTING THE CALL OF AN ELECTION OF THE VOTERS OF FAYETTE COUNTY SCHOOL DISTRICT TO APPROVE THE IMPOSITION OF SUCH TAX; APPROVING THE FORM OF BALLOT TO BE USED IN SUCH ELECTION AND THE NOTICE OF SUCH ELECTION; AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES
WHEREAS, Article VIII, Section VI, Paragraph IV of the Constitution of Georgia and Part 2 of Article 3 of Chapter 8 of Title 48 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated (collectively the “Act”) authorizes the imposition of a one percent sales and use tax for the purpose, inter alia, of financing certain capital outlay projects for educational purposes; and
WHEREAS, the Board of Education of Fayette County, Georgia has determined that it is in the best interests of the citizens of the Fayette County School District (the “School District”) that a one percent sales and use tax be imposed in Fayette County for the purpose of financing certain capital outlay projects for the School District, which projects will be for the benefit of all of the citizens of the School District; and
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE FAYETTE COUNTY BOARD OF EDUCATION, acting by, for and on behalf of the School District, that there be imposed, levied and collected in Fayette County, a sales and use tax for educational purposes, subject to approval by a majority of the qualified voters residing within the limits of such county voting in the referendum therein, such tax to be at the rate of 1 percent as authorized by the Constitution of Georgia, Art. VIII, Sec. VI, par. IV, and as further defined and implemented by Article 3 of Chapter 8 of Title 48 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, with the referendum to be held on November 4, 2008. Such tax shall be imposed for a period not to exceed twenty (20) calendar quarters and for the purpose of raising not more than $115,000,000 of net proceeds by said tax, which shall go to the School District for the purpose of (i) paying a portion of the principal and interest due on School District Series 1999, 2001 & 2005, the maximum of amount of total debt service to be paid shall not exceed $38,000,000; (ii) adding to, renovating, repairing, improving, and equipping existing school buildings and school system facilities; (iii) acquiring miscellaneous new equipment, fixtures and furnishings for the school system, including technology infrastructure, equipment and software, safety and security equipment; (iv) acquiring textbooks; and (v) acquiring school buses and transportation and maintenance equipment, the maximum amount sales and use tax proceeds to be spent on projects (i) through (v) shall not exceed $115,000,000.
FURTHER RESOLVED, that the School District may use such other funds as may be lawfully available (whether federal, state or local funds) to pay the costs of said capital outlay projects which exceed the maximum amount financed from this tax.
FURTHER RESOLVED, that the ballot to be used in such referendum should have written or printed thereon substantially the form attached hereto as Exhibit A.
FURTHER RESOLVED, that a referendum is hereby called to be held in all voting precincts of Fayette County on November 4, 2008, for the purpose of submitting to the qualified voters the question set forth in Exhibit A attached hereto.
FURTHER RESOLVED, that this resolution be forthwith delivered to the Superintendent of Elections in Fayette County for the call of the referendum to be issued, and for advertisement thereof to run once a week for five weeks immediately prior to the date of the referendum in the official organ of Fayette County in substantially the form attached hereto as Exhibit B. The first such advertisement shall run no later than the week of September 29, 2008.
FURTHER, RESOLVED, the proper officers and agents of the School District are hereby authorized to take any and all further actions as may be required in connection with the imposition of such special sales and use tax, the acquisition, construction and installation of the School District projects.
FURTHER RESOLVED, the School District intends to use any available state funds to which it may be entitled, together with any designated local funds, in combination with the sales and use tax, to fund the capital outlay projects described in this resolution.
ADOPTED by the Fayette County Board of Education in a called meeting of the Board, this ____ day of ______________, 2008.
Attest: ________________________ ____________________________________
Secretary Chairman

(SEAL) ____________________________________
Vice-Chairman
____________________________________
Board Member
____________________________________
Board Member
____________________________________
Board Member

EXHIBIT A
FORM OF BALLOT
The ballots to be used at such referendum shall have written or printed thereon substantially the following:
________ Yes Shall a special one percent sales and use tax for educational purposes be imposed in Fayette County for a period not to exceed twenty (20) calendar quarters and for the purpose of raising not more than $115,000,000 of net proceeds by said tax, which shall go to the School District for the purpose of (i) paying a portion of the principal and interest due on School District Series 1999, 2001 & 2005, the maximum of amount of total debt service to be paid shall not exceed $38,000,000; (ii) adding to, renovating, repairing, improving, and equipping existing school buildings and school system facilities; (iii) acquiring miscellaneous new equipment, fixtures and furnishings for the school system, including technology infrastructure, equipment and software, safety and security equipment; (iv) acquiring textbooks; and (v) acquiring school buses and transportation and maintenance equipment, the maximum amount sales and use tax proceeds to be spent on projects (i) through (v) shall not exceed $115,000,000.

________ No

EXHIBIT B
NOTICE OF REFERENDUM TO THE QUALIFIED VOTERS OF
FAYETTE COUNTY SCHOOL DISTRICT, GEORGIA

NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that on the 4th day of November, 2008, a special election will be held at the regular polling places in all the election districts of Fayette County at which time there will be submitted to the qualified voters of Fayette County for their determination the question of whether a special sales and use tax for educational purposes of one percent shall be levied, imposed and collected on all sales and uses in Fayette County for a period of time not to exceed twenty (20) calendar quarters and for the purpose of raising not more than $115,000,000 of net proceeds by said tax, which shall go to the School District for the purpose of (i) paying a portion of the principal and interest due on School District Series 1999, 2001 & 2005, the maximum of amount of total debt service to be paid shall not exceed $38,000,000; (ii) adding to, renovating, repairing, improving, and equipping existing school buildings and school system facilities; (iii) acquiring miscellaneous new equipment, fixtures and furnishings for the school system, including technology infrastructure, equipment and software, safety and security equipment; (iv) acquiring textbooks; and (v) acquiring school buses and transportation and maintenance equipment, the maximum amount sales and use tax proceeds to be spent on projects (i) through (v) shall not exceed $115,000,000.
The ballots to be used at such referendum shall have written or printed thereon substantially the following:
_____ Yes
_____ No Shall a special one percent sales and use tax for educational purposes be imposed in Fayette County for a period not to exceed twenty (20) calendar quarters and for the purpose of raising not more than $115,000,000 of net proceeds by said tax, which shall go to the School District for the purpose of (i) paying a portion of the principal and interest due on School District Series 1999, 2001 & 2005, the maximum of amount of total debt service to be paid shall not exceed $38,000,000; (ii) adding to, renovating, repairing, improving, and equipping existing school buildings and school system facilities; (iii) acquiring miscellaneous new equipment, fixtures and furnishings for the school system, including technology infrastructure, equipment and software, safety and security equipment; (iv) acquiring textbooks; and (v) acquiring school buses and transportation and maintenance equipment, the maximum amount sales and use tax proceeds to be spent on projects (i) through (v) shall not exceed $115,000,000.

Any brochures, listings, or other advertisements issued by the Fayette County Board of Education, or by any other person, firm, corporation, or association with the knowledge and consent of the Board of Education, shall be deemed to be a statement of intention of the Board of Education concerning the use of the proceeds of the general obligation debt to be issued in connection with the sales and use tax for educational purposes.
The several places for holding said referendum shall be at the regular and established voting precincts of the election districts of Fayette County, Georgia, and the polls will be open from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. on the date fixed for the referendum. All polling places will be open.
The last day to register to vote in this referendum shall be October 6. 2008, through 5:00 p.m. Mail voter registration applications must be postmarked on or before October 6, 2008.

Those residents of Fayette County qualified to vote at such referendum shall be determined in all respects in accordance with the election laws of the State of Georgia.
This notice is given pursuant to a resolution of the Fayette County Board of Education adopted on ____________, 2008.
This ____ day of ___________, 2008.
________________________________
Election Superintendent

SECRETARY’S CERTIFICATION
I, ______________________________, Secretary and Superintendent of the Board of Education of Fayette County, DO HEREBY CERTIFY that the foregoing pages of typewritten matter constitute a true and correct copy of a Resolution adopted by the Board of Education of Fayette County, Georgia, on the ____ day of ____________, 2008, at a meeting which was duly called and assembled and open to the public and at which a quorum was present and acting throughout, which Resolution has not been modified, repealed, revoked or rescinded as of the date hereof.
This ____ day of _____________, 2008.
____________________________________
Superintendent and Secretary Fayette
County Board of Education

(SEAL)

https://eboard.eboardsolutions.com/ViewResult.aspx?S=4067

didn't work for me....so I put in www.eboardsolutions.com and about laughed my but off.

I guess you are busy trying to load it on the school page to save face.

www.eboardsolutions.com

says...used by over 180 local boards of education

Company InformationeBOARDsolutions (EBS) is backed with more than 55 years of experience in ...board governance and association management. EBS was created as a subsidiary of the.... Georgia School Boards Association.... (GSBA) when demand for its governance and membership management products began to expand into other markets and states. Initially developed by and for the GSBA, the products are now being used by over 180 local boards of education, state boards of education, state agencies and other associations.

Mission
The mission of eBOARDsolutions is to partner with our customers to achieve organizational excellence by harnessing collective knowledge and delivering innovative technology solutions and services.

are you really not on the schoolboard?

You Searched For:"splost" in Home Page Text ,News ,Strategic Plan, About The Board, Meetings, Policies, Documents

News

Public Input Sought on Proposed SPLOST

Meetings

(8/28/2008)AGENDA

- Presentation of Proposed 2008-2009 Millage Rat

(8/11/2008)AGENDA

- Presentation of Proposed 2008-2009 Millage Rat

(8/4/2008)AGENDA

- Presentation of ESPLOST Proposal for a Vote

- Presentation of Proposed 2008-2009 Millage Rat

(8/4/2008)AGENDA

- Presentation of Proposed 2008-2009 Millage Rat

(7/31/2008)AGENDA

- SPLOST Information

(7/28/2008)A G E N D A

- SPLOST Information

(7/21/2008)AGENDA

- SPLOST Discussion

(6/23/2008)AGENDA

- Budget Update

(3/17/2008)A G E N D A

- Wetlands Project Update

typed www.fcboe.org, clicked on School Board. clicked on eboard, entered splost into the search block and looked at what came up - that's the link I was trying to send

That is where I found the official thing that the board voted on that I cut and pasted

I still haven't found anything anywhere about any astroturf but I am keeping an open mind and waiting for sniffles to prove it's official.

I have emailed all the school board members and superintendent but haven't heard back yet...probably won't until Tuesday.

Not a school board member but glad you enjoyed thinking I was.

I emailed all the board members and superintendent. I got two responses so far...

From: petesake@luckymail.com [mailto:petesake@luckymail.com]
Sent: Sunday, August 31, 2008 3:44 PM
To: smola.janet@fcboe.org; todd.bob@fcboe.org; key.marion@fcboe.org; wright.lee@fcboe.org; smith.terri@fcboe.org; smith.katherine@fcboe.org
Subject: SPLOST question

All,

Is there astroturf for football fields included in the SPLOST?

Thanks,

Pete Sake

First -

ABSOLUTELY NOT! There was an article in Thursday’s AJC about Cobb County’s ESPLOST including astroturf in theirs. I wonder if people are confusing Fayette’s with Cobb’s. I’ll try to find that link and send it to you. I hope this helps. Janet Smola

Second -

No. It has not come before the Board. Remember, school system expenditures still have to be budgeted and approved by the Board. If the SPLOST is approved by the voters, it will only create another revenue source. It won’t change the way projects are planned and presented to the Board for approval. A neighbor asked me about Astroturf last week. Since that was the first I heard of that, I called the superintendent and asked about it. Apparently some high school coaches mentioned it, but staff knew better than to even present it to us. I wouldn’t have supported it. Please let me know if there is anything else I can do. Warmest Regards, Terri Smith

is very vague in my eyes, you could put in a pool, astro turf, or buy all the football players pink tutus if you want to.

(ii) adding to, renovating, repairing, improving, and equipping existing school buildings and school system facilities; (iii) acquiring miscellaneous new equipment, fixtures and furnishings for the school system, including technology infrastructure, equipment and software, safety and security equipment; (iv) acquiring textbooks; and (v) acquiring school buses and transportation and maintenance equipment, the maximum amount sales and use tax proceeds to be spent on projects (i) through (v) shall not exceed $115,000,000.

Sugarfoot, Eboard is the state standard for a standard document repository for Georgia school systems. Our implementation is laughably amateurish, it's almost as if they want to make finding information as difficult as possible.

Now, then. I did find what PeteSake was referring to on eboard in a non-indexed Microsoft Word document for the August 4th board meeting agenda.

To my knowledge, there are three separate sets of documentation floating around:

1. The initial proposal, with projects listed, and costs associated with each project. This is the proposal with 10 million for a pool and 25 million for technology.

2. The "Day 2" proposal, issued the day after the public outcry over the Taj Mahal pool, in which the $10 million for the pool disappears literally overnight, and the technology budget magically increases from $25 million to $35 million overnight. The project costs for the technology portion disappear.

3. The "Smola 'Maximum Flexibility' Plan", which lists only potential areas of spending (technology, bond interest reduction, repairs, etc) with absolutely NO costs associated with them. This plan was ordered by Janet Smola at the July 28th board input meeting so that the board could have "maximum flexibility" (i.e. political patronage) in directing spending.

All three plans call for raising $115 million dollars. Don't think for a moment they don't have a detailed plan for spending this money. The detailed plan for expenditures calls for replacing the football stadiums grass with astroturf

Line items like this are why the school board and certain school factions are fighting tooth and nail against the Open Government requests for information

Is this anywhere we can all see it without you going to that trouble?

I don't doubt your word and I'm glad you put it in the paper. Maybe PeteSake will see that her pool got a back seat to astro turf and join the ranks of the disillusioned

Read the blog that you wrote and do what you said the others could do. If you want a better aquatic facility get your boosters together and raise the money, remember you said it was that easy!

Good point, Dondol. I don't know what either costs. Each high school has a football field. None of the high schools has a pool. Still, I bet each booster club could afford artificial turf for an existing stadium cheaper than they could build an aquatic center. Do you suppose that's true?

"I have seen the SPLOST presentation and talked to central office administrators about the SPLOST because I supported the aquatic center and went to the public hearing and heard why the board took it out."

You saw something freely, that others would have to pay $2000.00 dollars to see.

What is fair about that?

The SPLOST presentation was given at several public meetings in front of a room full of people. Then board members and staff hung around talking to people. That's when I saw it. That's when I talked to several staff members and several board members. Were you there?

I haven't asked to see every email containing the word SPLOST by five different people which is what Tami Morris did which is what they are saying would take people days to compile so that could provide her with it. Should taxpayer dollars pay employees to do that? I don't think so. They already gave her a big stack of papers.

It sounds like you are privy to things the rest aren't. The staff shouldn't be bad mouthing another parent who wants more info. That is their job, and we pay their salaries.

All 3 of Coweta's schools outperformed Whitewater, Sandy Creek, and Fayette county high on the SAT scores. Yet Coweta's taxes are about half of what ours are. They have good schools. Some on the board have gone to the extreme with the school building and where they have built them.

The whole thing is about trust. When they seemed to with hold vital information until after their elections, they have lost the taxpayers trust and respect, and quite possibly, their money.

East Coweta was 5 points ahead of Whitewater and 18 ahead of Sandy Creek, very close. Both McIntosh and Starrs Mill were WELL ahead of the best performing school in Coweta (Newnan). 1639 & 1606 versus 1526 posted by Newnan.

Are you saying that Coweta School Taxes are HALF of what they are in Fayette County? I'm not sure I follow that, from this paper the FCBOE is proposing a millage rate of 19.35, while Coweta is holding meetings for 2008 with the millage rate proposal of 18.59. How is that HALF?

we were hit with it less than a month after elections. Those elected didn't say a word about it till after they got back in office. That is extremely unfair.

Many feel some on the BOE have not used the money they had well, so there is a feeling more money would go the same way.

Seniors will be hit by the SPLOST and they shouldn't be pulled back into the tax loop.

What you say is what Tami Morris said. It has already been proven to her and others that it was discussed before the election. Why don't you call her and ask if you can see what they gave her?

Do you understand that there is a building full of people working full time on this stuff and that board members just vote on the recommendations a couple of meetings a month?

I can't explain why others didn't hear it or know about it.

I know seniors who support the SPLOST because they support the schools and understand that an educated public benefits them, too.

Do the math. It's going to cost seniors more than taxes if the school system starts to fail because the community stopped supporting it.

I'm against SPlost, or SPLAT, or whatever they are calling it this time, because

1. you will be hurting the local bussiness which we don't have a lot of.

2. the BOE hasn't shown they are good stewards of the money and won't squander it.

3. Seniors, who have paid for schools for eons, live on a fixed income, and by law, don't have to pay the school taxes after 65, are now herded back into the taxable group.

nothing about it is fair, and more importantly, some on the BOE, don't care how much they have, they just want more to spend. This is a time when Mommy and Daddy just don't have it. Some on the BOE seem to not care in the least about these parents. We have middle managment layers that can be done away with before you get to the parapros and teachers. I'm sorry, but less than a month after election, to cart out this dog and pony show, is really bad taste. Even,as you read in the paper, some on the BOE don't agree with these tatics, they are, sorry to say, in the minority.

Suggarfoot, you refer to a "SPLOSH" three times in your post. I think you probably meant a "SPLOST".

Sorry, myself and a few others keep saying SPLOSH, that was the one they had a few years ago, you are right, this one is SPLOST.