A new elementary school is still going to be built in the Van Wert community, but the pace of the project has been slowed due to costs associated with a fire at a Cedartown school earlier this year.

Polk County Schools Superintendent Marvin Williams, in a speech before the Rockmart-Polk County Rotary Club Tuesday, said construction of the new elementary school will be delayed until sometime next year.

Williams noted that the school board approved, at a called meeting earlier this month, that a referendum be presented to voters in February to extend the 1-percent Special Local Option Sales Tax that expires next year. The extra money is needed to complete the Van Wert school and also build new "growth schools" in order to keep up with increasing student enrollment, Williams said.

"I think we have entirely too many trailers," Williams said. "We need to get ahead of the growth."

The school in Van Wert was intended as a replacement for the aging, land-locked Goodyear Elementary School -- which includes buildings built in 1930. The new school would be larger from the outset, helping alleviate existing crowding, and also would provide room for future expansion. The proposed building plan allows for additional wings to be added to accomodate future needs.

The Van Wert school was to be funded from the existing SPLOST, but priorities changed in June when Westside Elementary School sustained extensive damage from a fire.

State and local fire officials determined that the fire was intentionally set. No determination has been made on who set that fire and no charges have been filed in the suspected arson.

The fire damage was too extensive to repair over the summer, so students and faculty are temporarily housed at the old Elm Stree Middle School in Rockmart. That facility was available as a subsitute campus due to the construction of a new Rockmart Middle School -- another SPLOST-funded project -- completed just in time for the current school year.

The start of shool had to be delayed a couple of days due to minor delays in getting the new RMS campus ready, in addition to the changes that were needed at the Elm Street facility to accomodate elementary students.

Adding to difficulties for the school system, the Georgia Department of Education would not allow a simple repair of fire damage at Westside. Due to the age of the school, and the extent of the damage, the school system was required to make extensive upgrades and renovations to bring the school up to modern building codes.

The nature of the work that had to be done meant the school system was forced to dip into the SPLOST funds in order to repair Westside.

"We expect to spend $3.1 million of our own funds," Williams said. "And we'll have about $3 million of insurance money. We hope that will be enough."

These unexpected expenses due to the Westside fire required a reworking of the school system's facilities plan. Construction of the new school had to take a back seat to getting the existing campus back up and running in Cedartown.

Williams said the work at Westside is on track to be completed in time so that the school can be reoccupied in January, when students return from Christmas break.

After Westside is back in business, and assuming voters agree to renew the SPLOST, the Van Wert school project is the next priority. If voters don't approve the SPLOST, Williams warned, the school system's only option will be to request a property tax millage increase in order to raise money for school construction.

Williams said the SPLOST also is needed to provide for future needs. In addition to the Van Wert campus, the school system is expected to begin planning for another elementary school to be built somewhere in Polk County.

In other business Tuesday, Williams talked about academic achievement in Polk County schools and efforts to improve scores in English, math and sciences.

New initiatives have included expansion of after-school tutoring programs, including the provision of a bus to provide transportation for students who otherwise would not be able to attend.