MARIETTA - A majority of Cobb school board members intend to grant the county's Department of Transportation permission Thursday to run a new four-lane highway right by Milford Elementary on Austell Road.

"I think we've had enough time on this. Personally, I'm in favor of it," school board Chairman Dr. John Abraham said.

Although many members of the Milford community oppose the request, board members the Rev. Dr. John Crooks, David Banks and Lynnda Crowder-Eagle have also said they will approve it.

Residents have denounced the road as a safety hazard to the elementary students.

Called the Windy Hill/Macland Road Connector, the new thoroughfare is intended to provide west Cobb motorists a more direct route to Interstate 75 by connecting Macland Road at Powder Springs Road to Windy Hill Road at Austell Road. The two-mile highway, which would pass just 100 feet north of the school building, is scheduled to open May 2011.

Banks believes the road will help the community by relieving traffic congestion.

As to safety concerns, "We have other schools in similar situations. I don't see that as a major problem," he said.

Board member Alison Bartlett, who represents the school, is trying to convince the board to sell the Milford property and build a new school at another location.

"It's not a safe place anymore," she said.

The school already has a trash dump, police shooting range and jail behind it. A major highway slashing right by Milford would be in addition to the busy Austell Road in front of it.

The school board would never permit a school in the wealthy east Cobb community to be treated this way, Bartlett said, adding that students who attend Milford are mostly minorities from lower income families.

Bartlett said when she first began to protest the road proposal after stepping onto the board in January, she was warned that it would be the end of her political career.

"I was told to shut up and go away. (They said) 'Who cares about those people,'" Bartlett said, declining to reveal who made those comments to her.

But rather than go away, she continues to voice objections.

"Once again, this community gets the shaft. It angers me to no end," she said. "This population has been discriminated against by Cobb County. Cobb failed this whole area."

Bartlett estimates a new school would necessitate 15 to 20 acres, but says the board has millions available in its SPLOST II and III accounts earmarked for land acquisition that could pay for such property. What the school district doesn't have is the funding to build the school, which would cost in the neighborhood of $30 million, she said.

She hopes that $30 million can be secured with federal stimulus money.

"That's a pretty big hurdle," said Michael Andel, chief of staff for U.S. Congressman David Scott (D-Smyrna).

Andel said the federal government doesn't typically fund the construction of schools, leaving that to the local governments. Moreover, he said stimulus money is supposed to be spent within 12 to 16 months. And that means spent, not placed in a savings account, he said.

Andel said there are some zero interest bonds available to schools in the Recovery Act, but that would be something the school board would need to actively seek, in which case Scott's office could then help them.

In May, the board voted to grant access to Milford so the Cobb Department of Transportation could do preliminary utility work. The Thursday vote is the important vote, district spokesman Jay Dillon said.

"It would grant the easements needed for the project," he said.

Cobb Board of Commissioners Chairman Sam Olens has given the board a deadline of Sept. 30 to approve the easement.

"If the county is not able to get a decision on access to the school property by September 30, 2009, Cobb County will have no choice other than to redesign the road to avoid the school property. Unfortunately, this will also have the effect of eliminating the many improvements to Milford Elementary School," Olens wrote in an Aug. 28 letter to Abraham.

Olens was referring to the $1.2 million in improvements the county has agreed to make "to include land for a much larger playground, a safer parking lot and the shared cost of school guards." Additionally, Olens has offered to fund a $1 million lighted tunnel for students to use; however, the board rejected that offer for liability reasons.

The board meeting begins at 7 p.m. Thursday in the boardroom at 514 Glover Street in Marietta. Residents who wish to address the board should arrive to sign in at 6:30 p.m.