The Coweta

County Board of Education will look at a proposal to

start building a new $1.2 million gym at O.P. Evans

Middle School this year.

At

Tuesday's meeting of the board's Building and Grounds

Committee, board member Harry Mullins pointed out that

Evans is the only school in the county that doesn't have

an operating gym.

Superintendent

of education Richard Brooks showed the committee members

an architectural rendering of a proposed gym and said it

would look exactly like the new gyms at Arnall Middle

School and Smokey Road Middle School.

If approved

time next year's school calendar starts.

Since the

gym was not part of this year's budget talks, Brooks said

the facility could be built with money from the board's

fund balance, which currently stands at nearly $8

million.

"This

could not be paid for with SPLOST [sales tax] funds since

we didn't list it as one of the projects," Brooks

said.

Board

member Wade Corley said he didn't mind the entire school

board looking at the project, but said he did not want

the proposal forwarded to the board with a favorable

recommendation.

"I

just can't vote that way. East Coweta Middle School's gym

is a World War II Quonset hut," he said.

Mullins

agreed that East Coweta's facility is not the most

modern, but said the board had discussed solving the

Evans problem for a long time.

"Maybe

East Coweta's problems need to be talked about, but they

can still utilize that gym," he said.

Board

member Bill Covington was more concerned about the

financial burden of a new gym.

"This

year we struggled with the budget to get enough teachers

in the classrooms," he said.

Mullins

agreed that the budget process is difficult, but said he

had instructed Brooks to study the feasibility of the

issue and to bring it before the committee only if it was

a doable project financially.

The

committee agreed to forward the idea to the full school

board for discussion at its Sept. 14 meeting.

<!--

-----------