If the Mary Freeman site is suitable, it would allow construction of a school

in one of Coweta's fastest-growing areas. The board's action follows

noti�cation by the state that Coweta County School system growth rate and

accumulated construction entitlement funds may allow the system to apply

for state construction funds for a 53-classroom school on the site. The school

system cannot apply to the state for school construction funds for the project,however,

until the site studies are complete and state Department of Education has

inspected and approved the site.

School system Director of Operation Coy Mills said that a timeline for construction

cannot be determined until the site is approved and the system's application

for state capitol outlay funds is reviewed.

"We will be able to determine that better as we move forward with this

process," he said. Also at Tuesday night's Board of Education meeting,

Mills reviewed the progress of several school construction projects, including

Coweta's 17th elementary school in Grantville. The Grantville Elementary

School was dedicated last Friday and will open for the 2004-05 school year.

$2.6 million in state capitol outlay funds and $4.6 million in Special Purpose

Local Option Sales Tax revenues funded the $7.2 million Grantville school.

Following completion of the Grantville school, the school system will begin

construction of Lee Middle School on Willis Road. The county's sixth

middle school will open for the 2005-06 school year. The state portion of

funding for the Grantville school was approved by the Georgia General Assembly

last spring. The Board of Education voted Tuesday night to make formal application

to the state to collect the funding, as well as classroom expansion funding

also made available to Coweta schools. School System Comptroller Keith Chapman

also discussed collections of the system's penny School System SPLOST,

which covers school construction. Chapman said that monthly collections of

the one-cent tax have continued to increase as the economy has improved in

recent months. July collections nearly reached $1.4 million, he said. Tax

revenues from the SPLOST showed an average growth rate of 5.44 percent between

June 2003 and June 2004, he said - much higher than stagnant rates of just

a year ago.