Cobb School Board to Meet Again on SPLOST

The Cobb Board of Education has called a special meeting for next week to discuss the proposed SPLOST IV construction and maintenance project list.

The meeting is scheduled from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. Monday in the board room of the Cobb County School District central office, 514 Glover Street, Marietta.

The board met last week to go over a revised "notebook" (see attached PDF) totalling $717 million in proposed projects that Cobb voters may be voting on early next year.

At the end of that meeting, board member Alison Bartlett asked for another public meeting to continue finalizing the project list. The board is expected to vote later this month on whether to call for a referendum, which is likely for March 2013.

East Cobb schools would gain significantly from the revisions included in the latest notebook. In addition to $30 million for a replacement middle school in East Cobb, the new list includes a total of $27 million in improvements for Walton High School, which was initially earmarked for $13 million.

The Walton changes would include funds for a new fine arts complex, in addition to a replacement gymnasium and other projects.

Walton parents have been lobbying heavily for the fine arts improvements at public meetings, and they hired an architect to submit plans to school district staff as the project list was being updated.

The current SPLOST III collection period ends at the end of 2013. If the one-cent sales tax is extended by voters, the SPLOST IV funds will be collected from Jan. 1, 2014 through Dec. 31, 2018.