New East Franklin School on capital project list

A plan for the senior center, rebuilding an elementary school and the first two phases of refurbishing the Macon County Recreation Park were part of a preliminary five-year Capital Improvement Plan presented last week to the Macon County Board of Commissioners.

Mitch Brigulio of Davenport & Company presented the proposed plan as part of his financial health update to the commissioners on March 11.

The preliminary Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) includes the Crawford Senior Center ($13.72 million), a new East Franklin Elementary ($36.212 million), converting the current Bartram Academy into a Pre-K School ($5.7445 million), Phase 1A of the Recreation Master Plan ($1,766,275), Phase 1B of the Recreation Master Plan ($1,134,963), Phase 2 of the Recreation Master Plan ($5,019,838), a retractable pool cover/renovation ($4,669,376) and adding classrooms at Cartoogechaye Elementary ($5.021 million). Those prices, totaling $73,287,952, don’t take into account any possible outside funding.

Brigulio said the Crawford Senior Center is a new project in the CIP, per the county’s request.

A new East Franklin Elementary School could be funded by the state’s Needs-Based Public School Grant Fund. This is the same grant Macon County received in January 2024 to help fund the new Franklin High School, with $62 million awarded.

Brigulio said Macon County can be eligible for that grant again starting in 2026, fulfilling a three-year wait between grant awards.

At a March 13 school liaison meeting, school board members and commissioners spoke of the need to get the East Franklin process started. County Manager Warren Cabe said it would behoove both boards to get data on the current building this year to be better positioned for the grant.

Macon County Schools Grounds and Facilities Director Todd Gibbs said they’re looking at a new East Franklin with a capacity of up to 500 students, up from the 350 it currently holds. This could help overcrowding in neighboring elementary schools, such as Iotla Valley, Cartoogechaye and South Macon.

School Board Member Hilary Wilkes said they need to get architects involved over the next 18 months and hopes the planning costs can be included in the budget for 2025-26. County Project Manager Jack Morgan said being shovel-ready is a big help to receive the state grant. Macon County Schools Maintenance Director Tracy Tallent said it would be good to have Carroll Daniel, the construction manager at-risk for the new high school, involved earlier in the process to work on design.

The current East Franklin Elementary, originally built in 1950, requires the most maintenance out of any current Macon County school buildings. Last year, Superintendent Josh Lynch said architecture firm LS3P told them the 47,839-square-foot school couldn’t be added on to.

Paying for the CIP

In total, the preliminary CIP identified $137,729,752 in department requests. The county’s cost would be $98,383,388, depending on grants and other funding received.

Along with the major projects already listed and other reoccurring requests, the plan also included the Southwestern Community College armory, fire rescue training center and public safety indoor firing range.

To pay for these projects, Brigulio told the commissioners that 52% would be from loan proceeds, 29% would be from grants or other funding sources and the remaining 19% would come from pay-as-you-go and reserves.

In the funding analysis outcome, the total tax equivalent impact by fiscal year 2030 to fund all those departmental requests would be 3.01 cents, if the county receives the state grant for the East Franklin Elementary School. If not, that number goes to 5.8 cents. This would come from economic growth, sales tax revenue and property taxes, or a combination of those. In either scenario, this would keep Macon County above its 25% fund balance for expenditures.

Davenport noted the county still has an Aa2/AA credit rating, saying the rating agencies are encouraged by what is happening.

This fiscal year, Macon County transferred $20 million from the unassigned fund balance to its capital fund for the Franklin High School and Highlands School projects. Even with the transfer, it will keep the county’s unassigned fund balance at least at $28.8 million, which will be over 40% of expenditures. Macon County has a policy to keep the fund balance at 25% of expenditures, with 30% as a target.

Starting in fiscal year 2025-26, the FHS bond debt repayments go up to nearly $6 million a year for the next two years, then go down over time. Brigulio said Macon County must pay back half of its nearly $85 million in principal debt over the next 10 years, which it is slated to do.

County Manager Warren Cabe said the commissioners will review these priorities and hope to finalize the Capital Improvement Plan by June. Cabe hopes to lay everything out to the board and leave it to them to digest and decide.