Although the details are still up in the air, the Wilkes County Board of Education is devising "an exit strategy" to stop the planned construction of a new school complex and to minimize the financial impact on the county and the school system.

That also means they won't ask for a 13.8 percent tax increase - or any increase at all. The budget is expected to pass Thursday with the millage rate set to the rollback rate.

"Does anybody believe we can go ahead with this project?" asked board Chairman Ricky Callaway to his fellow Board of Education members at Monday night's construction workshop. "I don't see any way we can fund it."

The impasse stemmed from the fact that the board had been working with a figure of about $16 to 17 million for the complex. "A year ago, when we got serious about building, we were misinformed, by both the state and Southern A&E, that we could build this for under $100 a square foot. They were so far out now there's no way the county can afford to do this."

The latest estimate to build the school complex is now $24 million, and that estimate is only good for another week. The steadily rising TheNewsprice of steel, driven by worldwide demand and U.S. hurricane repairs, is said to be the main culprit in the 40 percent increase in the estimated cost of the school complex.

Wilkes County Superintendent of Schools Joyce Williams, Chief Financial Officer Dean Ware, Callaway and board members have been meeting with state education officials, bond experts, and officers from Southern A&E and Torrance Construction to try to work out the details of ending the construction process as painlessly as possible.

The planning for financing the school complex was complicated by the timing of the final guaranteed price and the necessity to set a millage rate in July. Previously, the school board had until October to arrive at a budget and set a millage TheNewsrate, Callaway said, and the new state requirement to have it done before August 1 put the board in a tough position.

The final guaranteed price arrived TheNewsJuly 21, at about $8 million above the expected estimate. That same week, the board was holding hearings required to pass a 13.8 percent tax increase needed to pay the $16 million off in two years.

That put Williams, Ware, and the board in the awkward position of holding public hearings on a proposed tax increase, while at the same time reeling from the news of the project's new price tag.

The only solution they could find was to wait. "Let's just take a step back and look at our options," Callaway said.

Ware said that he and Williams would be meeting with bond and taxation experts Wednesday to assess the impact of ending a project for which a Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax has already been passed and collected on for months. The "Special Purpose" for this tax was narrowly defined as new construction, not repair of older facilities. Ware said that he had contacted

legislators Tom McCall, Mickey Channell, and Jim Whitehead to search one last time for funding for the project, but no one was able to locate any other sources of funds.

"We're apparently not the only county in Georgia in this fix," Ware said. "Several other school projects are being postponed in other areas of the state."

Ware confirmed Tuesday that, since the board had advertised a proposed increase in the millage rate, there was no further legal requirement to advertise the fact that the millage rate would not be increased after all.

County commissioners will have their final tax hearing Thursday at 9 a.m. with a called meeting to follow at noon. They are expected to pass a budget that will not include a tax increase for the school system. School hearings see crowds

The recent controversy over the new school complex set some new records for public participation in Wilkes County.

After more than 20 citizens came for a daytime hearing last Thursday, a crowd of more than 60 concerned citizens filled the Board of Education meeting room Thursday night to hear Wilkes Board CFO Dean Ware explain the predicament the board members found themselves in. Citizens at the hearing were less than pleased to see that only one Board member, Steve Albertson, attended the evening meeting.

A good crowd is expected for Thursday's 9 a.m. final Board of Education tax hearing, followed at noon by a called meeting, at which they will pass their budget and send it on to the Wilkes County Commission.