Ryan Hanchett
rhanchett@highlandsnews.com
The Pledge of Allegiance didn’t sound the same during the September meeting of the Macon County Board of Education on Monday night at Highlands School.
For the first time in a long time, board member Tommy Cabe wasn’t in attendance to lead the monthly pledge and moment of silence. Cabe passed away Sept. 1 and left a lifelong legacy with the board and school personnel.
“This one is hard for me, because as most of you know we lost board member Tommy Cabe earlier this month to what the doctor called a ‘sick heart,’” board chair Jim Breedlove said. “Tommy was the greatest advocate for students I have ever known. He strove and worked his absolute hardest to improve our schools for our children.”
The board’s first action of the evening was to appoint a new vice chair to fill Cabe’s seat. Carol Arnold was unanimously approved to be the vice chair. Breedlove then appointed Highlands representative Hilary Wilkes to serve as the board’s facilities liaison to the Macon County Board of Commissioners.
In the building and grounds section of the agenda, the board entertained a request from Western Carolina University for five school buses to transport students from WCU’s campus to downtown Sylva for a homecoming parade.
Breedlove voiced concerns about letting outside organizations use school district property and board attorney John Henning Jr. noted that the school district cannot violate state law by competing with private businesses.
“We are not allowed to compete with private businesses, and we know that there are companies in our area that do bus rentals,” Henning Jr. said. “I would advise the board to be very cautious when it comes to renting or loaning our buses to any organization outside Macon County.”
There was no motion made regarding WCU’s request for five buses and thus the item died on the floor.
The board unanimously approved a committee to study a possible addition to Highlands School to accommodate a new Pre-K classroom. The committee was approved by the Macon County Board of Commissioners during that board’s September meeting.
Former Highlands School soccer coach Jeff Weller addressed the board regarding the condition of the Highlands soccer field.
“About 16 years ago, I came to you all and asked for the board’s help in building a soccer field behind the school,” Weller said. “Before that time we played our games at Buck Creek on a field that was below the state minimum size requirements, and before that we had to play at Macon Middle School and bus our teams down there.”
Weller noted that recent heavy rains have made the field unplayable and forced the school to cancel multiple soccer games.
“If we have a significant rain event, it can be 5 to 7 days before we can play on the current field,” Weller said. “Earlier this season we had a game cancelled at halftime because the field conditions deteriorated during the game, we had a player injured, and the referees would not let us continue.”
Weller asked the board to consider putting down synthetic turf on the site of the current field and provided a proposal to do so. Any project, if approved, would need to be put out for bid.
Macon County Commissioner Gary Shields noted that a proposal to possibly put synthetic turf on the football field at the new Franklin High School is also on the table and there may be opportunities for the school district and county to work together and consider both turf projects jointly.
The next Board of Education meeting will be at 6 p.m. Monday, Oct. 24 at the FHS Fine Arts Center.