The addition of six classrooms at East Franklin Elementary is going out to bid in mid-February with the hope to finish by the end of the year.
Macon County Schools Personnel Director Todd Gibbs gave the update during the January Board of Education meeting.
Gibbs said according to an email from Emily Kite with LS3P, the East Franklin Elementary expansion architects, the drawings are 95% complete.
The project will be paid for with $4.7 million from the Elementary and Secondary Emergency Relief Fund. ESSER funding must be spent by December 2024, which staff members said shouldn’t be a problem.
Baldwin said the timeline will be like the previous six-classroom addition at South Macon, with work starting this summer and completion by the end of December.
In other facility updates, Gibbs spoke on the hydrogen sulfide leaks from the sewer vent pipes at Macon Middle School. Gibbs said that MCS and contractors H&M Constructors plan to conduct a calibrated test to detect how potent the smell is. Gibbs said through his research on the “rotten eggs smell,” he believes the odor isn’t dangerous.
“We’re not hurting people, it’s not a health situation,” Gibbs said. “With that being said, it’s uncomfortable, it’s not something you want to subject people to.”
Baldwin interjected to note that MCS doesn’t believe the smell is dangerous but hasn’t confirmed that yet since no test has been conducted on how potent the hydrogen sulfide is.
Gibbs said no one has reported any symptoms from the hydrogen sulfide smell since that section of the school was first constructed in the 1980s.
It was determined in November that the longtime sewer odor at Macon Middle was coming from dislodged sewer vent pipes where pipe connectors were either improperly or never installed.
Gibbs said an air quality test could also detect other potential chemicals in the air, such as cleaning chemicals.
In a brief update, Gibbs said he met with potential contractors for the Nantahala School sewer treatment system. He will present a cost estimate at the February board meeting. Gibbs and others have previously said the sewer system is on the verge of failure. A failure would mean the Nantahala School would have to shut down for an indefinite period of time.
Earlier in January, the school board identified the vent pipes at MMS and the sewer treatment system at Nantahala as immediate action items when prioritizing school capital projects.
Public comments
During the public comment portion of the meeting, South Macon parent Kaleen Messer had pointed words specifically for Baldwin, calling him out for what she felt was an attempt to intimidate her over the telephone.
Messer said Baldwin called her after she posted a Facebook comment mentioning a teacher and student incident on a Jan. 13 MCS post regarding “clarified policies and practices regarding staff-student interactions.” Messer said she felt like Baldwin was trying to intimidate, censor and silence her and called Baldwin’s phone call “a veiled threat.”
“I can’t help but wonder and question if you have jeopardized the integrity of yourself and this board before, or if this is an isolated event,” Messer told the board
In a written response to The Franklin Press, Baldwin said the school system does not respond to every social media comment, but since the Facebook post was vague and implied he had affected her directly, he said he wanted to repair the relationship and asked for information about the alleged incident.
“I would like to add that I am uncertain how the commenter thought that I would retaliate against her child, but this was particularly hurtful to me,” Baldwin said. “I believe that it would be better to have a millstone hung around my neck and then cast into the sea than to harm a child.”
Baldwin confirmed the teacher in question from an FHS incident “months ago” had resigned on Jan. 26 after using up all their allotted leave from Dec. 20 onward. MCS and law enforcement had been investigating the incident since mid-October, according to the superintendent.
The other public comment at the Jan. 23 meeting was made by John deVille, imploring board members to speak to state representatives in an effort to raise per-pupil funding in North Carolina. deVille gave each board member copies of studies he had researched regarding per-pupil funding, saying that North Carolina is last in the country in that category.
In other business from the Jan. 23 meeting:
The following schools were honored for meeting their academic growth projections: Cartoogechaye Elementary, East Franklin Elementary, Franklin High School, Highlands School, Iotla Valley Elementary School, Macon Early College and Macon Middle School. Additionally, Macon Early College and Franklin High School were both recognized for their graduation rates of 96.4% and 98.5%, respectively.
Board Chair Jim Breedlove was recognized for attaining more than 300 cumulative hours of training in his time on the school board.
The school system got a clean audit for the 2021-22 fiscal year from Anderson Smith & Wike PLLC out of Elon. Later in the meeting, the board unanimously approved using the same firm for the 2022-23 audit, due to the Local Government Commission on Oct. 31.
During the audit discussion, school board members asked about food costs and the potential for a school lunch rate hike. Baldwin said the school lunch fund can be sustained for the 2023-24 school year so there likely will not be an increase, but beyond that it’s unknown.
The board unanimously approved the following:
• An annual educational affiliation agreement between MCS and Western Carolina University that allows WCU College of Health and Human Sciences students to experience clinical training at MCS.
• A memorandum of agreement between MCS and the Long Center for Psychology to address students’ behavioral health needs through programming.
• A memorandum of agreement with HIGHTS, which provides on-call threat assessments.
• A memorandum of agreement with West Ed to facilitate STEM programming at Macon Middle School.
The Board of Education will hold its annual budget retreat on Feb. 15, starting at 8 a.m. Breedlove said the retreat typically takes up the entire workday.
The next regular board of education meeting will be at 6 p.m. Monday, Feb. 27 at the central office.