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Gov. Roy

Barnes will be the keynote speaker at groundbreaking

ceremonies for the Central Educational Center planned

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.

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 course offerings that yield joint

credit with Carroll Technical College and transfer credit

with traditional four-year universities.

Barnes has

called the CEC idea a model for education in Georgia and

the nation.

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.