Coweta school

officials were scratching their heads early in 2001 after voters narrowly

rejected an extension of the special purpose local option sales tax Tuesday.

The measure

failed by 98 votes, 3,221 to 3,123. School board member Rick Melville,

who watched the returns come in at the county's administrative complex,

said the vote will really hurt one group in the county.

"I really

feel sorry for the children. That's who this is going to affect the most,"

he said.

Melville couldn't

speculate what the school system's next move would be, but did have a

theory as to why the vote failed.

He said that

Bill Griggers, who represented many of the county's senior citizens, had

pushed for the vote against the tax when the school board failed to offer

seniors any relief on the school portion of their property taxes.

"I think

it's two totally separate issues," Melville said.

The board had

planned to use more than $60 million of the projected $94 million for

new construction, with the balance used to pay off the system's bonds.

of the year, board officials were working towards getting a legislative

proposal passed to give some tax relief to seniors and also contemplating

calling for another SPLOST vote in 2002.