More than halfway into the contract, the under-construction athletics building at Macon Middle School is currently on track for completion as scheduled.
Macon County Administrator Todd Gibbs said the work by Carolina Specialties Construction of Hendersonville on the 11,500-square-foot building is still slated to be done by the contracted completion date of Nov. 28.
The $2.5 million project will add four locker rooms, a wrestling-centric room, a storage area, restrooms accessible from the baseball and softball fields and a breezeway connecting it to the existing gym.
Work on the building started in April.
In other news from the Aug. 21 Macon County Board of Education meeting:
Jami Waldroop, FHS teacher, spoke to the board about the 18 CTE summer camps with 250 spots taken. Dawson Kendall, who attended several camps, talked about their favorite aspects of each camp. Via video, Patrick Faetz talked about how the occupational course study at FHS led to him doing an internship at Ruby Cinemas this summer, which led to a job. Faetz said what he liked about Ruby Cinemas is that it was accessible “more than my own high school.”
Ten-year-old Gracie Parker of Why Us Kids spoke during the public comment period. Parker said she has not received adequate data that she requested from MCS regarding trauma counselors and mental health professionals. Superintendent Josh Lynch said they need to get together to find out what exactly she wants. Board Chair Jim Breedlove said there might be federal restraints about what MCS can release.
The school board approved the FHS student handbook and Bartram (formerly Union) Academy handbook amendments. The only substantial FHS changes was redoing in-school suspension (ISS) so students will need to come in on an extra day for ISS once they reach a certain tardy threshold. Another change was to put “AI-generated work” under plagiarism and officially not allow freshmen who have a driver’s license to park on campus.
Discussions about school assignment areas and potential tuition requirements for out-of-state students that started in July will continue, according to board attorney John Henning. Board member Hilary Wilkes said she wants to make sure no students will be pulled out of school in January and would like these discussions done by kindergarten orientation in March 2024.
Pre-ACT testing will be done on Friday, Oct. 20, which is a teacher workday.
After an hour-plus closed session, the board approved the personnel reports, sang an impromptu version of “Happy Birthday” to board clerk Renee Burt and adjourned at 9:28 p.m.
The next school board meeting will be at 6 p.m. Monday, Sept. 25 at Highlands School. The meeting will be live-streamed with a link available at macon.k12.nc.us.