School officials found themselves in the enviable position Tuesday night of needing to decide how to spend $3.6 million that remains after major construction from the 2008 bond issue is finished.
All board members were present for the meeting. They did not make a decision on how to spend the money, but asked Superintendent Judy Couey for price estimates on the list of proposed projects she gave them.
The school district has until Sept. 15, 2012, to spend the last of the bond issue money. The surplus is available because bids for many of the projects came in under budget, and no significant surprises drained the reserves.
Couey presented projects from Starkville High, Armstrong Middle School, Henderson Ward Stewart, Sudduth Elementary and the Greensboro Center. She prioritized these to show the board her thoughts on how the money could be spent.
First on Couey”s list was a new field house for boys and girls for high school athletics, not just football. The Greensboro Center came in second, with the need for renovation in the auditorium and restrooms, and basement repairs. Couey”s third priority was the high school”s asphalt parking lot and street and parking lot repairs near the tennis courts and softball field. Fourth on the list was restroom repairs districtwide.
The board discussed these items, along with items not on the list such as installing air conditioners in gyms, repairing or replacing windows at Armstrong”s gym, and addressing lighting needs at the high school parking lots.
Pickett Wilson suggested the Greensboro Center not receive such a high priority.
“We need to spend every penny of this money where it will impact the most children of Starkville,” Wilson said.
Her list would put bathroom renovations first, followed by air conditioning in the gymnasiums, parking lot repairs and then the field house construction.
Lee Brand asked that Couey bring back estimated prices for each proposed item.
“It”s kind of hard to talk about priorities without having some kind of ballpark idea of costs,” Brand said.
The board took no action on this, neither did they act on the proposed goals they are trying to set for the school district.
To date, the board seems fairly happy with their top goal for the district being to reach high performing status by 2012 with 65 percent of the district”s students scoring proficient or above on state tests. This proposed goal is broken down into readiness opportunities for pre-kindergarten students and a graduation rate that increases from the current 60.4 percent to 75 percent by 2012.
They are looking at further goals specific to Sudduth Elementary, Millsaps Career and Technology Center, and performing arts and athletics. The board has been working on setting goals for the last few meetings.
In other business, the board hired Kisha Thompson as the new assistant principal at Sudduth, joining principal Lisa Thompson and assistant principal Jim Gassaway as the top staff at that school.
The board handled routine business matters before convening in closed session to discuss student discipline and personnel matters. They will meet again at 6 p.m. Dec. 7 in the Greensboro Center.
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 36 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.