Waiting on land purchase costs Georgia district

The Fulton County (Ga.) school board let land for a new school slip from its grasp, only to pay nearly twice as much for it two years later, school records show. The misstep cost taxpayers $5 million. The building of the Sandy Springs elementary school is expected to cost $23 million--$7 million more than two other recent elementaries--because rough terrain will require three stories, not one. Last year, the school board paid $10.8 million for the 24-acre site. Two years earlier, an indecisive school board had dropped an option to buy the land for little more than half that amount.

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