The Atlanta school district could ask voters in May to approve a sales tax worth about $546 million to Atlanta schools.
That would be Atlanta Public Schools’ share of more than $2 billion in potential Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax, or SPLOST, proceeds in Fulton and DeKalb counties.
The district has about $764 million in work on its to-do list, including school renovation and construction, technology purchases and upgrades, debt payments and new vehicles.
That includes:
- $202 million for school renovations and to create more space for students in Grady High School and schools feeding into Grady.
- $347 million for heating and air-conditioning, mechanical, electrical, plumbing and roofing work.
- $26 million for high school field houses and artificial turf and upgrades at Grady and Lakewood stadiums and Cheney Field.
- $90 million for technology purchases and projects.
And in what board chairman Courtney English said was a first for Atlanta, SPLOST money could be used to renovate APS buildings that house charter schools.
“If the building is in our enterprise, then it is a building and a site that we need to be responsible for,” Superintendent Meria Carstarphen said.
The district’s wish list also includes $10 million to demolish vacant school buildings, places Carstarphen described as “drug havens and places where bad things happen to kids and their families.”
Although most Atlanta schools are in good shape, according to a review commissioned by the district last year, at least 30 are in fair to poor condition.
The schools in the worst condition are mostly in south and east Atlanta and include Crim High School; Gideons, Hutchinson, Morningside, Perkerson, and Whitefoord elementary schools; and three Atlanta school buildings leased to charter schools: Latin Academy, Kindezi and KIPP Vision, according to a report from district operations officer Larry Hoskins.
The board could formally call for the SPLOST election next month.
If approved by voters, the new tax would take effect in July 2017.
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