With a newly elected member, the Fayette County Board of Education’s first meeting of 2011 on Jan. 4 may see a shift in voting power.

The board’s alignment for the past few years has featured a 3-to-2 split sometimes, with board members Bob Todd and Marion Key being on the short end of the vote.

That may change in the coming year as Sam Tolbert joins the five-member board, replacing Lee Wright, who did not run for reelection. Read More»

New Coweta County Board of Education members Amy Dees (left) and April Parker were sworn in earlier this week and will assume their responsibilities in January. Dees holds the District 1 seat while Parker holds the District 1 At-large seat. Photo/Special.

State officials are still talking about making further cuts in education spending, Comptroller Laura Brock told the Fayette County Board of Education last week.

The cuts would come from the school system’s Quality Basic Education (QBE) funding, and there’s talk of either a 2 percent or a 4 percent cut, Brock said.

The 4 percent cut would cost Fayette County Schools about $1.6 million, Brock estimated. To counterbalance that cut, the school will make cuts of 4 percent in transportation and nursing services going into the middle of the school year’s budget cycle, she said. Read More»

It’s a sign of the times, the economic times that is. A recent report on the Coweta County School System’s one-cent sales tax (SPLOST) revenues showed that collections dipped by nearly $750,000 between November 2009 and October 2010 compared to the same time a year earlier.

A report by Assistant Superintendent for Finance Keith Chapman showed collections for the period of November 2009 to October 2010 totaled $19,227,614. That compares to the $20,020,788 collected during the one-year period from November 2008 to October 2009. Read More»