A new K-2school in city?

Potentially constructing a new K-2 school for Clinton City Schools students is under consideration following information Superintendent Wesley Johnson brought to the Board of Education during talks about recurring issue with the system’s aging school buildings.

Johnson initiated the facility conversation during talks about the myriad roofing problems plaguing the system. While plans are in motion to address the more than $11 million in total roofing needs across the city schools ,Johnson took the opportunity to share information he had gathered on the possibility of building a new school.

“To start a conversation, most likely, we may have to have a separate board meeting to address this next item,” Johnson said in broaching the subject. “The item I want to talk about is entitled the facility conversation, a potential K-2 school and roofing needs.”

Johnson followed that by introducing to the board RFQs (Request for Quotes) he received from companies that showed interest in the suggested project.

“So what we have here, and I’m going to let John (Lowe) help me a lot on this next conversation, is the RFQ for architects for the potential of building a new K-2 school,” he said. “John, he had a lot of help working with people who have gone through this process because neither he nor I have. What John did is he put in an RFQ for architects and what we have to show you are the four architects that submitted responses for the architectural firms that could assist Clinton City Schools, if you all, as a board, decide to move forward with a new K-2 school.”

The four firms Johnson received those responses from were Becker Morgan, LS3P, Michael Graves and SFL+a.

Potential funds for the school would come from the Needs Based Public School Grant, an application for which the city system recently completed. Johnson turned the details of the discussion over to Lowe, executive director of technology and auxiliary services for Clinton City Schools.

A key point that Johnson tasked Lowe with covering was the Needs application, which had been done in 14 different section, all vital for the consideration for a new school.

“I split the applications into 14 to break them up into smaller components,” Lowe said. “As referenced, the Needs Based funding goes to new school disruption first, and so we know that’s going to take up large amounts of what will be available. Why? Because for an elementary school, now, if you apply for Needs Based Public School Capital funding, you can receive up to $42 million, and if you apply for a high school, it’s now $52 million.

“When those numbers go out and several counties want to build new schools, the available pot of funds, which is all coming from lottery-generated revenue, goes away really quickly, and so they’ll fund projects at those numbers.

“I also like to include all of our needs that could possibly come up because,again, it has to go to county commissioners for review,” he added. “And if we receive the money, we’ve got to come up with a 5 percent match from somewhere, and the county commissioners are going to have to chip in for that, which is like $6 million. We’ve got needs in other schools besides needing new construction, so that’s why I split it up into smaller segments, and that’s kind of all the long explanation for why I submitted 14.”

Johnson noted that explanation was important because the board would need to take all that into account as mulled the path they’d want to take.

“I think that’s important, and the reason why I asked the board chair and the vice chair if we could present this information tonight, is because it comes on the cusp of information we learned about our fund balance,” he said. “Instead of a new school, it may be that, as a board, you say that the roofing needs at Sampson Middle School are so dire that we have to write a $4 million check if the necessary funds are there.

“At the same time, as John has noted with our county commissioners, if you all decide that we should be moving forward with the addition of a K-2 school., John has told you that whoever the architect is will probably work with us to help with the grant for the Needs Based Public School Fund. With that project you would probably have a good opportunity because we would be consolidating two schools. That and you would probably have a good opportunity to receive $42 million from the state. Also, in the conversations with the architects, if you decide you may want to actually bring them in and interview them, that’s an option as well.

“Regardless, you’re going to need to ask some hard questions, like, is or how feasible is it that we’re going to build a school for the $42 million, along with what we get from the local county commissioners? If the total cost came to say like $50 million, is that where you spend some of our fund balance?”

Johnson also stressed that another major factor in considering constructing a new school was the acquisition of land, something the superintendent said might be hard to do. . After presenting those findings, he requested the board study the information from the RFQ and the funding needed for the current roofing repair needs to be in planning for their preferred route.

“I think it’s very important when you’re talking about some of our major needs, and then our, maybe, wants, which probably could be a need,” he said. “So as a board, when I say we’re going to start the conversation, what we’re going to be tasking and asking you to do in the coming months is to look at fund balance, look at the needs of our roofs and to look at these RFQ booklets and digital documents. As you do that, I’d like for you to come up with a short term plan and maybe a longer term plan on what you feel like, as elected officials, is the direction that we need to go. Now we’re here to help you to make those recommendations, but again, we we need to be making some decisions.”