Cobb County’s school board was presented Wednesday with a detailed list of $717 million worth of projects to complete if a special purpose local option sales tax is renewed next year.
The board is expected to vote by the end of this year on whether to place renewal of the five-year penny-on-the-dollar sales tax on the March special elections ballot.
On Wednesday, consultant James Wilson of Education Planners gave board members a thick booklet that lists hundreds of capital projects at almost all of the district’s 112 schools.
Cobb paid Wilson’s firm $75,000 to survey administrators and project growth and needs in the coming years in order to create the plan.
Under the proposal, the district would spend $159 million to build two career centers and replace six elementary schools with two new schools. It also would purchase new buses, build new theaters and gymnasiums at several high schools and replace old band instruments.
Board members and administrators will spend the next month discussing the projects with staff, students and families, and will make adjustments based on feedback.
In 1996, the state provided the SPLOST referendum as a way to fund capital projects. The Cobb and Marietta city school districts expect to collect around $797 million through the five-year SPLOST passed in 2008.
With those funds, Cobb has replaced three elementary schools, built three ninth-grade centers and upgraded several facilities, among other projects.
The consultant estimated the district will grow just slightly, from 106,147 students to 106,472 students, by the 2014-15 school year. Most of that growth is projected to occur in the southern portion of the county.
Several local charter school advocates asked the board Wednesday to consider including in the proposal some of their needs, such as new security cameras, textbooks and technology.
No decision on that has been made, but some board members were skeptical, pointing out charter schools’ unpredictable lifespans.
“Funding is extremely tight for us,” board member Alison Bartlett said. “If we had enough money in the pot to do it, that would be a different issue.”
Administrators said they will post the entire list on the district’s website (www.cobbk12.org) Thursday and make presentations to PTA groups in the coming weeks.
“We’re going to have ample opportunity to talk about this,” board Chairman Scott Sweeney said. “This is just a draft at this time.”
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