The Polk School District Board of Education is moving forward with a proposal to call for a sales tax to fund new school construction and renovations.

A special session has been scheduled for Sept. 21 to lay out a comprehensive plan.

A Special Local Option Sales Tax already on the books expires next year. In order to renew the 1-percent sales tax and build new schools - without a break in the tax collections - the SPLOST referendum would need to be held by March.

“If we want to have another ready to go, there are two dates,” Interim Schools Superintendent Darrell Sorrells told the board during its Sept. 7 work session.

Possible dates are Nov. 2, as part of the general elections, and in March. Sorrells said he would prefer a March date rather than having the SPLOST in November, which would be the earliest date possible. Experience shows a SPLOST has a better chance when the referendum is not on the ballot with a general election, he said.

However, even with a March date, there is not a lot of time for planning.

“We need to establish a direction,” Sorrells said. “We need to start deciding what we’re going to do for the children of this county.”

Sorrells asked the board to set a date for a special session, geared specifically to rewriting the master facilities plan for the Polk School District. Some key circumstances and assumptions have changed since the last plan was drawn up.

For one thing, the board has learned in recent months that the state is un-likely to approve any plans to utilize the old Rockmart High School and the Cedar Hill School in Cedartown for use as centers of learning.

Even some board members who have been steadfast supporters of reusing those schools conceded last week that it is time to move on.

Board member Guy Rutland, however, said he would rather go to court and have the decision of the state school facilities panel overturned. Board member Harold Wingfield, however, seemed to express the sentiments of the majority of the board regarding that issue:

“The state has said they’re not going to support us (in the use of the old schools),” Wingfield said. “We’re going to have to do what the state wants us to do, if we want funding for the schools.”

Prior to the state panel’s denial, the school board had proposed renovating both schools. The Cedar Hill campus was considered as a possible elementary school, and the old RHS campus was to be renovated for use as a middle school, allowing the Elm Street School to be retired.

With those plans derailed by the state, the board is looking instead at construction of new schools - at least three, to start. These include two elementary schools, to relieve crowding at other campuses and to provide for a growing student enrollment - and maybe a new middle school.

The board at present does not have a definite plan for new school con-struction, or the amount of money that will be needed from a SPLOST.

In addition to the needs for new schools, the board is faced with long-standing issues at several existing campuses. Discussed at some length last week was the state of bathrooms at the Elm Street school.

Board members said the bathrooms are in such a sorry state, many children “hold it” all day rather than using those facilities.

“I know a kid in the 10th grade who never went to the bathroom at Elm Street,” board member Tommy Sanders said.

“I’ve got a first-grader at my home …. the rate we do things, he’ll be going to the same situation,” he said. “It could be that way if the SPLOST doesn’t pass.”

Sorrells said one thing the board needs to decide at their Sept. 21 meeting, is which schools they are going to replace. Then, they need to decide how much money they are willing to invest in renovating schools that would be closed within the next five years.

“Are we going to put more money into that campus (Elm Street), or are we going to build a new school,” Sorrells asked.

Board members Frank Plant and Harold Lumpkin spoke in favor of immediate repairs.

Plant noted that the board has about $1.8 million of past SPLOST money held in reserve. Plans were to use that money for renovations at the Cedar Hill and old RHS campuses. Since that is no longer seen as an option, he proposed using that money instead to fix problems at other campuses.

“The money is just sitting there,” Plant said. “Let’s put it to use. We’ve got needs everywhere.”

In addition to school needs, the new facilities plan also is to cover other concerns, such as access problems to existing campuses.

Traffic jams at various campuses were another point of discussion at last week’s meeting.