For

lack of $309,000, Fayette County schools have

given up $2.7 million.

The

Board of Education Monday voted to withdraw its

application for a state grant totalling $2.7

million for construction of a new elementary

school due to the lack of the required local

matching funds.

An

application for funding an elementary and middle

school with state growth funds was approved in

May, but failure of the special purpose local

option sales tax referendum Sept. 21, intended to

provide the necessary local match, has prompted

school officials to withdraw the elementary

portion of the application until another source

of funding can be found.

No

action was taken on withdrawing application for

the middle school funds.

"We

can apply for the next round of funding in a

year," said Dr. John DeCotis, superintendent

of Fayette County schools. "We will go back

and revisit the five-year facilities plan and

decide how we want to approach this, either with

a charter school, which may not be as much money,

or additions to buildings."

The

board also approved the formation of a task force

to address an increasing teacher shortage that is

facing the state and the country. "Within

the next five years, there will be a teacher

shortage nationwide," DeCotis predicted.

"In

an informal review here, up to 30 percent of our

teachers will retire in five years. We live in a

growing area and in Georgia, we don't graduate

enough teachers, especially special education

teachers," he said.

The

task force will be headed by Judy Byrd of the

district's Human Relations Department.

Recommendations will be presented in February to

the board.

The

board also was looking at a unified salary scale

proposal for district employees and a

recommendation to review the current benefits

package.