The Carroll County Board of Education voted 6-1 Monday to accept a bid for $6.2 million for the construction of a new 900-seat gymnasium at Bowdon High School.

Board member Mike Huckeba, the lone “no” vote, argued against the project saying the money -- revenue collected in special purpose local option tax -- should go to building classrooms rather than a gym.

“That money would have built 24 classrooms,” Huckeba said after the meeting. “It would have built the four at Villa Rica Elementary. It would have built the eight at Glanton-Hindsman and it would have built the 12 at Ithica.”

Those projects are proposed 2010, 2011 and 2012 SPLOST projects that may have to be postponed because nearly $4.9 million in capital outlay funding the system was counting on did not materialize for 2008 projects at Central Middle School, and Temple elementary and middle schools. Capital outlay funding for those projects was based on projected enrollment growth that did not meet expectations.

“We have been growing in Carroll County by approximately 500 students a year,” Superintendent John Zauner said. “Based on that projected growth, actual and projected growth we built our capital outlay project program.”

Growth last year, however, was just more than 100 students, not enough to earn the state funding for the projects.

The one project eligible for state capital outlay dollars was the Bowdon High School gymnasium which qualified because it was replacing the old gymnasium and didn’t require a growth in enrollment to qualify.

“If it was an addition “ if we had two gyms or three gymnasiums or three PE facilities, yes, it would count against you as additional instructional units,” Zauner said. “You wouldn’t earn any funding on it, at the high school level. (But) by state requirement you are required to have one physical education unit in your facility.”

The old gymnasium is slated to be renovated for use as a fine arts facility, so the new gymnasium will be a replacement rather than an addition, making the system eligible for $1.05 million in state funding for the project.

“I wouldn’t think you’d turn away $1 million,” Zauner said. “That just wouldn’t make much sense to me.”

Board Chairman Donald Nixon argued that physical education space is as important to students as the academic space. His own experience with extracurricular kept him involved in schools throughout his teen years and into his career as an educator, he said.

“It’s all important -- band, extracurricular and academic classrooms,” Nixon said.

The board voted 6-1 to apply for the capital outlay funds and then to accept the low bid from J and R Construction.

Also Monday, the board unanimously accepted the proposed millage rate of 18.1 mills, the same millage rate the system has used for the last five years. It was the third and final required public hearing for the millage rate.

The public hearings were required because the millage rate will produce more tax dollars for the system during the 2009 fiscal year. Because of growth in the system and because of increased assessments on some homes, the school district will take in 4.24 percent more than it did in fiscal year 2008, Chief Financial Officer Greg Denney said.

Denney also noted the increase would be almost entirely used to fund increased transportation and energy costs.

Board members also voted unanimously to apply for charter school status for the Carroll County College and Career Academy, an expansion of the existing technical school in the district.

“We have an August 1 deadline for the charter,” Assistant Superintendent of Administrative and Student Services Christie Johnson said. “After we submit the petition on August 1 our clock starts to run for the grant application that is parallel to this petition.”

The grant application will be due Sept. 2.