The Union County Board of Education met in a called meeting to discuss adding capital projects into the Five Year Plan.
Dr. Jimmy Carter, director of schools, distributed a list of the capital projects and their costs that had been completed over the last five years.
Finance Director Ann Dyer and Maintenance Supervisor Mike Johnson were present to answer questions. Carter informed the board that the current capital project of providing a heating and air conditioning system for the hallways of Luttrell Elementary had been placed on hold until after the meeting.
He explained that earlier this year County Mayor Jason Bailey formed a committee that included Carter to discuss future facilities and school buildings with particular emphasis on a new middle school. Currently, Union County is completing the sewer project for Sharps Chapel Elementary with the ARC Grant.
Discussion centered around the need for a plan to move “beyond band-aids for Maynardville Elementary” and decide to “renovate or plan for a future building.” However, all seemed to agree that a middle school is the top priority. Sports facility improvements were mentioned as past improvements, but board members Marty Gibbs and Andrew Reed wanted to shift the focus to building a new school.
The discussion turned to the status of the roof projects. Carter commented that the high school roof had been completed in phases. He also explained that improvements were completed or would be updated at SCES, MES, ALC, and staff development.
Carter also noted that $128,000 was budgeted for ancillary maintenance from the capital projects budget. He said fire alarms, paving, and sports facility upgrades had also come from the capital projects budget.
Gibbs inquired as to how projects were prioritized. Carter stated that decisions were a consensus of maintenance needs, principals’ recommendations, and cafeteria requirements. Paving speaks not only to safety but also to pride in the facility.
He also told the board that “we try not to spend more than one million dollars a year on capital projects,” but recent projects, especially the cost of the football field and track improvements, had exceeded that amount.
Carter also reminded board members that the system was purchasing buses in order to transition to a system-owned transportation service rather than a contracted service.
Discussion continued on purchasing buses. Comments included the need for a garage, the timeline for purchasing parking facilities and possible land availability.
Reed then questioned why only one million was budgeted when BEP included nearly or over three million for FY 19, FY 20, and FY 21. Gibbs chimed in with the question of cost of contracted transportation as compared to ownership, as well as the possibility of using part of the fund balance to put more money into a school building fund.
Dyer said she could provide that data and that ownership was far more cost effective. Carter also said that he would provide a breakdown of the other programs that were funded from capital funds. Dyer commented that the fund balance has been accruing over the last seven years.
Carter and Dyer explained that part of the fund balance would be used to meet the state mandated beginning salary increase to $40,000 that is to be met within three years.
Carter said that a real concern is the decrease in enrollment due to COVID-19 which may cause a reduction in BEP money.
When Gibbs, Reed, and Casey Moore indicated that the school system should be paying to build the new middle school, Carter stated that Mayor Bailey seemed pleased with the $5,000,000 the system had offered toward the purchase of land and the architect fees to begin the planning process. Then Carter maintained that funding the building of a school is a county responsibility.
He also noted that agreeing to large payments from the school system budget for UCHS had put the system in financial distress. He further explained that the funding formula from the state may change due to the lawsuit brought by urban systems.
Finally, the discussion ended with Carter agreeing to meet with Bailey to get a better idea of the timeline and funding from the county and report at the next Union County Board of Education meeting. Carter assured the board that he would follow whatever plan that the board voted. No action was taken at this meeting.