Board delays school project

By NATE HUBBARD/Staff

In Case of Cash Crunch Use Stairs.
George Wythe High School will remain elevator-less for at least an extra six months after the Wythe County School Board voted Wednesday morning to delay a project to improve the building’s handicap-accessibility.
As was mentioned during the governing body’s October meeting, bids for the project at George Wythe and a similar federally mandated undertaking at the Wythe County Technology Center came back higher than the amount of money the School Board has remaining in this year’s budget for the projects.
Last month, Superintendent Lee Brannon and OWPR architect Randy Jones had expressed hope that they could tweak the plans in a way that would lessen the cost of the renovations while still ensuring that the work improved the schools’ handicap-accessibility levels to federal standards.
Most notably, the superintendent and architect proposed installing a chair lift at the technology center instead of an elevator that would provide access only to the horticulture room.
But Jones said Wednesday that the contractor was not willing to drop the price in any significant way.
“The credit we got was not a reasonable credit in my mind to even consider,” he said.
Instead of accepting South End Construction’s $1.26 million bid for both projects, Jones recommended to the School Board members that they only accept the WCTC bid and hold off on the GWHS renovations.
When considered separately, South End turned in an $814,317 bid for the WCTC project and a $533,734 bid for George Wythe.
Brannon said the school system has around $860,000 remaining in state stabilization funds for the handicap-accessibility improvements when money already earmarked for the renovation of Rural Retreat High School is subtracted from the pool.
During budget deliberations in the spring, the School Board voted to take $300,000 of stimulus money originally earmarked for handicap-accessibility renovations and instead use it to provide 1 percent pay raises for all school employees.
That money was then later replaced in the budget when the school system got word on how it could use additional stimulus dollars, but had the $300,000 not gone to raises it could have still been free to potentially prevent the six-month delay now in place.
By postponing the George Wythe portion of the project, the School Board may also end up in the long run paying more for the overall endeavor due to the fact that South End’s combined bid was $90,000 less than the total price when each project was considered separately.
School Board member Alan Wilder questioned if it would be worthwhile to re-bid both projects, but Jones said he was fearful that the bids would be worse the second time around.
With its unanimous vote Wednesday to immediately move forward only on the technology center renovations, the School Board now plans to re-bid the GWHS project in the spring and hopes to have builders start work at the high school in July 2010 when it expects to have more stimulus money in hand.
While the postponement will mean the school’s second floor and auditorium stage will continue to be inaccessible to wheelchair-bound students for the time being, the school system has three years from 2008 to make progress on the improvements to be in compliance with federal disability laws. A six-month delay on the George Wythe project, therefore, isn’t likely to put the district in danger of missing the deadline.
Brannon said in an e-mail message after the governing body’s meeting that the school’s practice to accommodate handicapped students is to schedule all their classes on the first floor.
GWHS Assistant Principal Rolland Cook said the school currently doesn’t have any students who are unable to access the second floor. In the case of a student having a temporary injury, for example a football player who tears his ACL, he said the school sets the student up in the first floor guidance counseling room and brings his assignments to him until he is once again able to climb the stairs.
In the past, Cook said administrators have also on occasion had teachers switch classrooms to allow an injured student to attend class on the first floor.
Also at Wednesday’s meeting, Brannon updated the School Board on school enrollment and absentee rates.
Although the H1N1 flu continues to be a concern, the superintendent said absences have not been overly disruptive.
He said the highest student absence rate at a single school on a single day was 18 percent, but that no school has sustained an alarmingly high number of absences over a lengthy period of time.
School Board member Deborah Crigger asked Brannon if there was a certain absence percentage that would trigger school closings, but Brannon said the school system doesn’t have a specific figure in mind and emphasized that closing schools remains an option he doesn’t expect to have to use.
While absenteeism appears to be under control for the time being, Brannon cautioned that overall enrollment continues to be a worry.
While the school system built its budget on an average daily membership of 4,240 kids, the county’s enrollment currently has settled around 4,210, with central office leaders fearful that the figure could dip below 4,200 in 2010.
A school system’s enrollment helps determine its funding from the state and fewer kids equals fewer state dollars. Brannon also said Wythe County is likely to take a double blow next year as the county’s composite index (a measure of the wealth of the county relative to other localities in the state based on 2007 data) has gone up, which also could translate into a reduction in state funds for Wythe County public education.
Brannon is scheduled to present a more detailed presentation on the budget outlook next month as the School Board prepares to tackle what could be another difficult round of financial talks and decision making in the spring.
The superintendent also asked the governing body members Wednesday to consider changing the way they develop the 2010-11 budget.
Under Brannon’s proposal, the full board would be more involved with the entire process than in years past and the budget would be broken down into categories with a special work session dedicated primarily to each section.
Despite the likelihood of trying times next spring, Brannon kept up a sunny disposition Wednesday as he expressed confidence that his first go around in developing a budget in Wythe County will ultimately end well.
“We’re going to make this work,” he said.
Nate Hubbard can be reached at 228-6611 or nhubbard@wythenews.com.