COBB COUNTY - Dr. John Crooks believes he has enough votes from his fellow school board members to fully fund a long-awaited $20 million renovation project for Wheeler High School, although he doesn't know exactly where the money will come from.

"Obviously, that's my job between now and when we get to the 26th," Crooks said, referring to finding funding before Thursday's meeting, when the board is expected to vote on the Wheeler project. "I should be prepared that night to present a funding mechanism, but it's got to be legal and it's got to be reasonable. I wouldn't go this far without a sense that this can be pulled off, because that's selling false hope and I'm not in the business of selling false hope."

Wheeler parents say the renovation - which includes constructing a two-story wing and making several other upgrades that would rid it of mold and asbestos problems - has been promised for the 46-year-old east Cobb school since SPLOST II. They have been lobbying the board to fully fund it since SPLOST manager Doug Shepard presented a fly-by video of the Wheeler renovation to parents in May, only to immediately tell them the district no longer has the funds to execute it.

"I felt that we had prepared these plans and that we had scheduled the meeting and we owed it to the community to show them what we had prepared," Shepard said.

Shepard said board Chairwoman Lynnda Crowder-Eagle had informed him about the district's lack of money to fund the project several days before the Wheeler meeting and he made the decision to go out to the high school and present the project. The district hired the Norcross-based firm of Foreman Seeley and Fountain Architecture in July 2009 and has since paid the firm $71,247 for preliminary architectural work and fees, Shepard said.

Crooks, who was not at the May meeting, thinks it was good that Shepard presented the project to the parents rather than just killing it, because that's what motivated the community to lobby for the school.

Although board member Alison Bartlett takes issue with the way the project was rolled out to the public - and that it was not presented to the board before Shepard introduced it to the Wheeler community in May - she said she still considers it vital for that school.

"I am not going to penalize our students and our teachers because of poor business practices coming out of the central office."

But it remains questionable where the money could legally come from for the Wheeler project. The high school has a $9 million line item for renovations in SPLOST III, but would need to find an additional $11 million for the renovation.

Parents such as Starlet Riviere, who has spoken at recent board meetings, think that $11 million was already allocated for Wheeler in 2003, when SPLOST II was passed. At that time, Wheeler was budgeted to get $21.7 million. After spending $10.5 million on new science labs, Riviere said the school was left with $11.2 million.

However, Crooks said leftover money from the SPLOST II project was transferred to the SPLOST II contingency fund, and the project was closed out. If the board attempted to use funds from the second special purpose local option sales tax program, it would take on a big legal risk.

Perhaps the most viable option for Wheeler would be to use SPLOST III undesignated classroom funds, which has about $10 million left in it, Shepard told the board-appointed Facilities and Technology committee on Aug. 16. The issue with using that money is that the entire SPLOST III undesignated classroom fund, which is usually used for emergency projects, would be depleted.

But Crooks, who represents Wheeler, said that might still be the best way to fund the project, and now he has to convince the other board members and the public to agree. However, any way the board decides to fund the project would be a legal risk since it was not specifically stated in a SPLOST notebook.

At least one other board member has confirmed he is on board with a plan and two more are wavering on a yes vote. With Crooks' vote, he would only need three more to get a majority on the seven-member board.

"I am going to vote for it," northeast Cobb representative David Banks said Wednesday.

When asked if the district had the money to fund the entire project, Banks pointed to funds in SPLOST III. He also said he wasn't worried about the potential legal risk of using SPLOST III funds, even though the project is not specified in the SPLOST III notebook.

"You can't deny that there's not a risk, there is, but in my opinion it's very, very low," Banks said. "...But Wheeler needs to be updated tremendously, it's just an old school and the community deserves it."

Bartlett also said she supports the Wheeler renovation, but needs to understand whether the district has enough money in SPLOST III to fund it and all of the other projects planned for SPLOST III.

Bartlett said she has requested legal and financial advice from Clem Doyle, the school board attorney from Brock, Clay, Calhoun and Rogers.

"I support doing the Wheeler project correctly," she said. "But I can't tell you if it will be a yes this week or if it's a yes two years from now until I get all of the information."

Board member David Morgan supports the Wheeler project as well, but said he was waiting until Thursday's meeting to make a final decision.

"I think that the passion and sincerity that a lot of parents from that school brought made a strong impact on me," Morgan said.

Crowder-Eagle said she too would also reserve judgment until she sees the funding plan.

"I'm in support of the Wheeler renovation, if it can be funded legally," the board chairwoman said. "There's money in SPLOST III in undesignated classrooms, that's not necessarily funding for Wheeler, but it is there. Until those funding sources are brought to us, I just think it's premature to say how you would vote because we need to have the information before we would decide."

Crowder-Eagle announced in a prepared statement in June that funding the Wheeler project may have to come out of a new SPLOST program that would have to be approved by voters.

Holli Cash declined to comment and Dr. John Abraham did not return calls by press time.

Wheeler renovation history

While Crooks and parents claim Wheeler is in dire need of a makeover, it's hard to understand why a $20 million project for the high school didn't make it into the SPLOST III notebook.

When asked, Crooks said he did not push for a large renovation project in SPLOST III for Wheeler because he thought at that time the now-defunct Quality Classroom Initiative would address the issue. Wheeler was included in the Quality Classroom Initiative that Crooks created in 2008 to reduce trailers. The plan would have used undesignated classroom funds from SPLOST II and III.

"It wasn't an intentional or an incompetency issue," Crooks said. "The whole Wheeler plans have been out since the beginning of the Quality Classroom ... The question was, how do you solve it? We thought you could use part of SPLOST II and part of SPLOST III."

Crooks said the board chose to designate part of SPLOST II funds for a Wheeler renovation because money from that SPLOST was more readily available and could be used to hire architects right away.

Crooks insists the project is the right thing for the high school-even though he told the F&T committee in June that there was simply not enough money in the district's coffers to fund the $20 million renovation.

"This isn't a dog and pony show," Crooks said. "I'm seriously committed to fund this project. The truth is, it's got life now and that's the good news."