What started as an exercise in educating three new Clinton City Schools Board of Education members about the budget turned into a discussion about the new roof on Sunset Avenue School Tuesday night.

The board, assembled for what had been called a work session on the 2010-11 fiscal plan, took an about-face when discussion arose about the roof and what needed to be done.

Initially believed to have an estimated cost between $140,000 and $200,000 for a total roof replacement, Clyde Locklear, assistant superintendent of finance/facilities, told board members that the price could rise much higher than initially anticipated.

The subject of the school’s roof was brought up when Locklear was explaining a drawn up version of the 2010-11 Capital Outlay Budget, which totaled $490,434.

“This budget can vary, if you want to increase or decrease that number that will put more or less money into this budget to identify other priorities that the board might have or that are necessary for the school district,” Locklear explained. “That would be the transfer of fund balance from the current expense to the Capital budget.”

“How much is in the fund balance?” asked board member Diane Viser.

“Probably about $1.2 million on the current expense side,” he said. “There is no law that says how much you have to have in there, but it is wise to keep a reasonable amount because we have to pay the bills, and you need to have something in there if there is a major emergency.”

Then board chairwoman Kathleen Squibb brought up the subject of the roof. It was Squibb, whose husband, Jim, is a physical education teacher at Sunset Avenue, who brought the safety issues of the roof to the board at last month’s meeting. Outgoing board members Dr. Carl Barr and Victor Fryar agreed that something had to be done to fix the roof, while Dr. Bill Starling noted that the county government should be paying for the repairs.

“(Clyde) I noticed you put in the budget about $150,000 for the roof,” Squibb said. “We talked about it earlier and you said it would be roughly about $120,000.”

“I did that because at the time, that was the best information that I had from an estimate three years ago,” Locklear noted. “The engineer did come out and look at that roof and emailed me his report. His estimated cost for replacement and its associated cost is now around $237,000.”

“Is that for a brand new roof or repairing the roof or what?” asked board member Georgina Zeng.

“It is a combination of all of that,” said Locklear. “There are different segments of that roof that needs different work or repairs. The biggest part of the gym is where the vast majority of the money will be spent because it needs to be completely redone.”

“How close is that engineer’s estimate?” asked Viser.

“It could be more than that, it could be less,” said Locklear. “I am just building this into the budget, but in this particular scenario, it is basically coming out of the county’s appropriation (to us).”

The county’s appropriation for 2010-11 to Clinton City Schools is $238,969.

“We have got that, and I am looking at $50,000 from fund balance to make this budget work,” noted Locklear. “We can spend more or less than that.”

“Did the engineer give you an estimate about the air conditioning as well?” asked Squibb.

“He is a roofing expert; he wouldn’t have any idea about how much air conditioning would be,” said Locklear. “From what we had a few years ago, I am sure it would be $150,000 or above to do that.”

Board member Randy Barefoot echoed Starling’s sentiment from last month and asked Locklear about contacting the county to help with funding the roof.

“No, we have not made a formal request from commissioners to fund that,” said Locklear.

“I think that we need to proceed with what the board wants,” said board member E.R. Mason. “You can always ask the county manager and the commissioners and see if they could reimburse our system.”

“This is something that has been put off way too long,” noted Squibb.

“This is way overdue,” echoed Mason.

“I am not against it at all, but I am just saying if we have never asked (the county) for it, you will never know if you are going to get it or not,” said Zeng. “There is no harm in trying. I think you should give it a try.”

“We will make that request,” said Locklear.

Board superintendent Dr. Michael Basham gently gave the suggestion to consider going ahead with air conditioning, along with adding the roof.

“Now would be the time to make that happen,” said Locklear. “Any money that we are going to transfer would need to be put in; it would make things easier.”

“So is $50,000 your recommendation?” asked board member Carol Worley.

“No, I just put that number in to make the balance work,” said Locklear. “But it could go either way you want it to; I just need that direction. If we are going to do the roof at $237,000, and we are going to do the air conditioning, which is probably at $150,000 at least, that $50,000 will need to go up by $150,000 plus dollars. I will need to adjust that.”

Locklear said there will be some challenges to air conditioning the gym, which is approximately 50 years old and 11,000 square feet in size.

“I am not a contractor, but it seems like it would make sense to do both at the same time,” said Squibb. “There could be some structural issues that could be an issue later on when you put in the air ...”

“That is right,” said Locklear. “Because if the air conditioning system is going on top of the roof, it probably should go at the same time so things can be adjusted. You don’t want to put a roof on and then come back and cut it (for air conditioning).”

“You are going to inquire and come back and give us updates, right?” asked Viser.

“If the board is committed to go ahead and get air conditioning, I am going to go ahead and get started with that process,” said Locklear.

“I am not ready to commit,” said Zeng. “I am glad that we are going to do the roof, but I need to see more figures and numbers for the costs before I can commit to anything.”

“A half million dollars on an 50-year-old building is a lot of money,” noted Viser. “You have to tread slowly.”

“An air conditioning system does not need to be on the roof, it can be on the ground,” said Zeng. “If we get the money back from the county, we can look at this again. I say go ahead with the roof and then look at the bidding, the budget in detail, then we can move on. I am not comfortable with making a decision right now.”

“If we don’t write it in the budget now, it will be difficult to do it later,” said Squibb.

“It makes sense to do it now,” agreed Barefoot.

“It makes sense on the potential that we might go ahead and be able to fix these things that the kids and the teachers have been waiting on for multiple years on a building that is sweltering and freezing and getting rained on that we get it fixed,” said Squibb passionately. “It is our obligation to make sure that these kids are in a safe, clean and secure environment and those kids are not ... it is terrible.”

“I am just questioning moving the money,” said Worley. “If I say it is OK to allot $250,000 are we agreeing to all of that?”

“I don’t think so,” said Locklear. “There are no contracts yet; you have made a decision to get the numbers and a desire to replace that roof — you may have appropriated money to cover that, but you are not tied to doing that roof because you haven’t approved a contract.”

Locklear noted that a completely new building could cost $125 a square foot, and costs could run in excess of a million dollars.

“We need to do some more investigation on the costs,” said Barefoot. “I mean this is almost $400,000 on a 50-year old building. I would like to get some solid estimates and costs. I am all for the new roof, but I need to see some more numbers.”

Zeng agreed. “I would like to see more estimates.”

“Could the board consider appropriating an amount that would cover both the roof and the air conditioning,” suggested Basham. “If you put the money in there and decide that you don’t want to do it, you don’t have to jump through a bunch of hoops because it has been set aside.”

After some more discussion, the board voted unanimously to go ahead and appropriate $250,000 in the fund balance to cover possible costs for the roof and air conditioning, as well as getting solid estimates and contacting the commissioners about helping with expenses ex post facto.

Locklear will go back and tweak the budget and bring it back to the board for approval.

To reach Doug Clark call 910-592-8137 ext. 123 or send e-mail to sisports@heartlandpublications.com.