The shovels

will be shiny and the grounds spotless as Coweta County

prepares for a visit from Gov. Roy Barnes.

Barnes will

be the keynote speaker at groundbreaking ceremonies for

the Central Educational Center next Friday at the CEC

site on Martin Luther King Jr. Drive in Newnan. Local

state legislators, other state officials, county and city

officials, and area business and industry leaders will

join the governor at the ceremonies.

"I

can't ever remember the governor coming down to look at

one of our schools," said Superintendent of

Education Richard Brooks.

The Central

Educational Center is a charter school designed in

partnership with Coweta County Schools, Carroll Technical

College, and the local business and industry community.

This

partnership allows the delivery of unique educational

opportunities by providing seamless course offerings

yielding joint credit with Carroll Technical College and

transfer credit with traditional four-year universities.

"This

is a pilot program for the governor in his education

program," Brooks said,

Renovations

to the existing facilities will allow a full program to

be offered beginning Aug. 10.

The Georgia

General Assembly approved $7 million in its 2000

supplemental budget to build two new buildings at the

Central site.

The

additions, scheduled to be finished and operating for the

2001-2002 school year, will house additional

state-of-the-art labs and equipment for the four career

tracks available at CEC: business, marketing and

information systems; health and medical; human services;

and technical and engineering.

"We're

all excited about this program," said Brooks. ���