I attended the Fayette County Commission meeting where the members voted to remove funding for the so-called arts center, while giving the go-ahead to a six-year SPLOST tax increase.
As The Citizen reported, Commission Chairman Charles Oddo said there was not enough time to “nail down” the details for funding the arts center. Maybe so, maybe not. Again, I saw in The Citizen that a lot of planning had gone into the proposed arena and it looked like the ducks were in a row.
Unfortunately, the main “duck” in the plan was to have the Fayette County School System operate the proposed arts center. If you look at the system’s past few years of operation, combined with a bloated budget and reserve, you can put a C-minus or flat D on its report card.
That low grade can cover the construction of a never-used $10 million school, the closing of elementary schools in Tyrone and Brooks, and a three-year, million-dollar contract for its current superintendent, joined by a $70,000 job for his spouse. Add to that piles of cash building up within the system funded by the maximum 20 mills school tax rate. The school system couldn’t fund the bucks to fix the septic tank at the now closed Tyrone School. But 24 months later, it is offering to kick in $6.5 million from its fattened coffers for an arts center.
Give credit to School Board Chairman Marion Key for suggesting recently that the school tax rate be decreased in August by up to a mill. That suggestion was voted down in a New York minute.
Not to shoot a dead horse, but other recent information from the press shows that Coweta County, with some 2,000 more students than Fayette, brought in a budget of $186.5 million, some $6 million less than Fayette.
Bottom line, the Fayette School System needs to focus on operating what it has on the table, like quality of teachers/education, its bus system, security, and keeping track of where its students are coming from. If we are not careful this crowd will try and get in bed with a new water park for Fayette County or perhaps a mega bowling alley.
Amazingly, Fayetteville Council member Kathaleen Brewer noted that the U.S. Department of Agriculture will not allow a school board to verify more than a random 3 percent of those applying for Title One free lunches. She noted that way more students are getting Title One lunches than the percentages of parents with below poverty incomes.
I’m saying the school board should verify EVERY applicant for Title One lunches. And if the the DOA puts up a squawk about it, tell them to see you in court. That’s why you have a school board attorney.
James Hightower
Tyrone, Ga.
