East Mississippi Community College is continuing to explore educational opportunities at a former Oktibbeha County School District high school campus, President Thomas Huebner confirmed Monday.
Huebner told Oktibbeha County supervisors the school is “trying to figure out the best fit” for the former West Oktibbeha County High School, located in Mayhew, but the facility is not expected to open its doors this semester.
Specific programing – a possible mixture between basic education and workforce development programs – and funding sources remain undetermined, he said.
“We’ve met with (Maben Mayor Larry Pruitt) and had a good conversation, but it would be really difficult to do anything quickly,” he said following Monday’s board of supervisors meeting. “So many things have to be determined, like how much of the facility would be used and where the resources would come from.
“We certainly understand the need for opportunities out there. We’ve got some ideas about what we think would be best for our partnership,” he said. “However, there are a lot of things to decide.”
EMCC and SOCSD began exploring the possible WOCHS lease in April, but negotiations came to a standstill a month later when the school district balked at the idea of the junior college not covering property insurance or major repairs.
SOCSD Superintendent Lewis Holloway confirmed in June the two sides hammered out an agreement in principal where EMCC would provide funding for utilities, insurance, upkeep and security at the facility.
The lease was expected to run for five years, but an overall price was not disclosed.
It was expected SOCSD could set the deal as low as $1 to ensure EMCC provided maintenance and upkeep at the closed campus.
“We see it as a win-win for them. They get a building for almost nothing, and we get the protection of having somebody in the building and maintaining … the security and utilities of the building,” Holloway said in April when he first briefed the school board on the potential deal.
Supervisors previously approved a letter of support for the project.
In other business, supervisors unanimously approved its upcoming fiscal year budget – a document guiding $31 million in expenses – and set the countywide tax rate at 118.99 mills.
Supervisors also unanimously approved a 3 percent cost-of-living adjustment for all full-time county employees.
Combined taxes – county operations and school taxes – increased from Fiscal Year 2014-2015’s 111.88 mill rate due to state lawmakers creating a single, countywide taxing district for SOCSD and spread the debts of Starkville School District and OCSD equally among city and county residents.
Approximately 28.65 mills of the tax rate will service county operations, while 12.38 mills will fund road and bridge projects. Other line items – including OCH Regional Medical Center pledges (4.22 mills) and bond payments (1.29 mills), EMCC support (2 mills) and a 2.42 mill levy for volunteer fire services – drive up the combined, non-school levies.
SOCSD’s combined 66.03 mill levy is derived from operations (55 mills), combined notes and bonds (10.03 mills) and a 1 mill Millsaps Career and Technology Center pledge.
Residents who live within Starkville, Maben and Sturgis are exempt from the county’s 2.42 mill levy for volunteer fire services. Their county rate – the combined governmental and school levy – is 116.57 mills, which does not include separate city tax levies.
One mill is equal to one one-thousandth of a dollar. Property taxes are calculated by multiplying a property’s true value by its assessment ratio and the millage rate. Assessment ratios are set by the state Constitution and include five classes. A single-family, owner-occupied residential property’s ratio is assessed at 10 percent of the true value.
Carl Smith covers Starkville and Oktibbeha County for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter @StarkDispatch
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