Fayette County's

school board is working harmoniously and wants an open relationship with

other local governments, its chairman told an assembly of political leaders

last week.

Chairman Mickey

Littlefield and state Rep. Kathy Cox addressed a meeting of the Association

of Fayette County Governments last week.

Littlefield

said the board has the right attitude as it moves into a $65 million building

program, and Cox said the county may be getting some more state money.

"Politically,

we have a school board that is working as a unit and is on the same page,"

he told the group, which includes both elected and appointed officials

from five Fayette cities, the county government and the Board of Education.

The board hopes

to start construction soon on two new elementary schools, both at the

same time, and is searching for a site for a third elementary school.

A high school will be built within the next five years as well, Littlefield

informed the group.

"We are

dedicated to doing it right," he said, adding that the board also

hopes to accomplish the most painful part of the expansion process redrawing

school district boundaries as smoothly as possible. "We hope we can

just do that one time" for all the new schools, he said.

Littlefield

addressed another topic that's high on the agendas of most school systems

safety, but he said local officials are confident that they're ready for

anything that happens.

"We're

always concerned about violence," he said, adding, "Folks, it

could happen here." But Fayette is the first county school system

in Georgia that has a certified plan for dealing with a variety of emergency

situations.

Capt. Pete

Nelms of the Fayette Department of Fire and Emergency Services developed

the system, he said, and school officials in other areas are learning

from Fayette's system. "The state has even picked his [Nelms'] brain,"

Littlefield said.

In a brief

overview of the recent state legislative session, Rep. Cox said the new

budget includes additional money for school systems like Fayette. "The

state has set aside a half billion dollars for construction, and we are

getting some of that money," she said.

But the money

is targeted toward reducing pupil to teacher ratios, and since Fayette

is ahead of the curve on that goal, the county may not receive as much

as other areas will. "Having always done the right thing," she

said, "we're not going to get as big a slice of the pie."

In other business,

the group elected new officers, returning Larry Dell as chairman. County

Commissioner Herb Frady was named vice chairman and Peachtree City Councilwoman

Annie McMenamin was named secretary-treasurer. The group also voted to

allow city managers, the county administrator and the school superintendent

to become voting members.

The group will

meet again in July10, to be hosted by the town of Tyrone.