The Macon County Board of Education met in a special meeting last week to approve funding for time-sensitive and important capital outlay projects.
Projects with bids set to expire soon and projects that could pose a hazard for students, visitors or faculty were discussed. The meeting also gave board members a chance to talk about complex projects in more detail than during the brief discussion periods offered at regular board meetings, said Renee Burt, clerk to the board and public information officer.
Approved funding
A project to replace the gym’s HVAC unit at Cartoogechaye Elementary was approved at $100,158.
New floor scrubbers for Highlands School and Nantahala School were approved at $5,000 and $6,000 respectively.
A project to pave the bus parking lot at Macon Middle School was approved at $92,000. Board chair Jim Breedlove said at the Sept. 22 school board meeting the bid would have expired ahead of the regular October meeting. Director of projects Tracy Tallent said the lot has never been paved before, and new asphalt will put an end to the large dust clouds kicked up when buses pull out of the lot and provide better parking for sporting events.
At Macon Middle School $15,864 was approved for a new covered concrete path from the Exceptional Children’s drop-off area that will prevent students with disabilities from having to travel — often with wheelchairs or other mobility aids — up a gravel path. Principal Mark Sutton said the project had been conceived around a year ago, and the cover will also prevent the students from having to walk in heavy rain. A similar concrete path and covered walkway leads to the school’s main entrance.
Replacing playground fencing at Mountain View Intermediate was approved at $4,826. The previous aluminum fence has begun to sag and must be replaced. The new fence will be made from a sturdier six-gauge wire.
New carpeting for Nantahala School’s administration building was approved at $5,278.
Water damage and 26 years of use have left cabinets in the front office of South Macon Elementary in need of replacement. The board approved $26,200 to remove the old cabinets and design and rebuild new cabinets.
At the Sept. 22 meeting, Tallent said he had purchased a parking lot crack filler to help the school system more frugally make minor repairs. Tallent said he would like to obtain a sealer to complete the set and improve the repairs. The board approved a parking lot sealer for $9,500. With the equipment, the school system will be able to save $237,00 that would otherwise have to go toward repaving damaged parking lots, including repairs to the Cartoogechaye Elementary parking lot (quoted at $46,990) and the South Macon Elementary car rider lane and parking area ($62,631).
Four milk coolers were purchased at a cost of $18,200. Two coolers will go to Iotla Valley Elementary and one each will go to South Macon Elementary and Cartoogechaye Elementary.
The board gave the go-ahead to bus garage director Mike Bale to order a 72-passenger bus with a wheelchair lift that will replace a short bus that will soon be retired. The bus will cost $165,000, to be paid upon receipt. Bale said a new, roughly $150,000 activity bus would be needed in the next one to three years.
Items not approved
Some items on the capital outlay list were discussed, but not approved.
Cartoogechaye awaits approval of $9,200 for hallway tile repairs and $14,000 is needed to refinish the gym floor at Highlands School.
Joint meeting
A joint meeting between the school board and the Macon County Board of Commissioners will take place on Oct. 21 at 9 a.m. to discuss funding and “issues of mutual interest.” Some school board members hope the meeting will serve as a chance to stress the system’s need for local funding as it faces a $1.7 million budget shortfall.
Breedlove said it can be easy to spend large amounts of money very quickly on necessary expenses. “It’s just self-evident,” he said. “We show that we’re being very conservative, very cautious, trying to reserve that as we go through because there’s unforeseen things that come up … my compliments to the board, I think we’ve done a really good job.”
Discussing the commissioners’ decision not to fund school lunches for Franklin High School and Highlands School this year, Hilary Wilkes said, “The only thing weighing on me that came out of our request for this coming school year is making clear … we are missing funds to even maintain what we did last year. I don’t know how the high school has been receiving this, but people are hurting in Highlands, and it is expensive [providing] five-dollar bills a day for my kids to eat, and it is something that I wish we had funded. I don’t know if it’s appropriate to bring it up at this meeting, but it’s something that a lot of people have asked about.”
Board member Stephanie Laseter said comparing each year’s budget for the past few years shows large discrepancies in the amount the system needs compared to what it gets. “It’s huge,” she said. “That’s a visual that shows you, ‘Yes, you gave us this, but it was less than we needed, then you add on the deficit for the next year.”
“It just keeps widening,” Superintendent Josh Lynch said.
The next regular Board of Education meeting will take place on Monday, Oct. 20, at Mountain View Intermediate School and the board’s joint meeting with the Board of Commissioners will take place Oct. 21 in the commissioners board room on the third floor of the Macon County Courthouse.