Commissioners Put Off Funding Decision of New School

January 5, 2010

The Nash-Rocky Mount Board of Education faced another hang-up in its quest for a new Rocky Mount High School at a Nash County Board of Commissioners meeting Monday.

Several school board members came before commissioners asking for immediate funding to build the new high school, along with other school district capital projects. Tempers mildly heated during the meeting, as school leaders provided commissioners with new construction bid totals, hoping for a final decision that would jump start construction funding.

But that decision was put off even before school board members could begin explaining their case. Before school board Chairwoman Evelyn Bulluck spoke, Commissioner Danny Tyson made a motion for the Board of Commissioners to delay voting on the high school’s construction funding until a Jan. 12 meeting with the school board. Commissioners approved the motion in a 4-3 vote.

County Board of Commissioners Chairman Robbie Davis said he felt the school board’s scheduled visit was not necessary because both boards already were scheduled to meet next week. But Commissioner Fred Belfield said he placed the item on the agenda.

The scheduled visit marks the sixth time the school board has come before commissioners regarding the new high school. Bulluck said that during those previous meetings, commissioners have been helpful with moving the process along.

But the process hit a snag when commissioners voted in September to allocate $44.1 million to the new high school’s construction in the 2012-13 fiscal year. The resolution also placed the school district’s other upcoming projects, a new Middlesex Elementary School and a field house at Southern Nash High School, at the front of the line, costing $10 million altogether.

School board members said they want commissioners to take that $10 million already allocated for both school projects and put it toward the new high school.

“Those priorities that we had set were ones we felt as a board was in the order we needed to progress and move our system forward,” Bulluck said.

Bulluck said the current high school is half the size the state recommends. Building a new high school would alleviate overcrowding at Southern Nash High School. The school’s creation would affect 1,200 students, and the present site would be used as a middle school, which would affect an additional 4,000 school district students, Bulluck said.

School board member Cindy Berry told commissioners that building the new school now would be “a win-win situation” financially.

When talks began about the school more than 10 years ago, Berry said a price tag for a new high school was estimated to be about $50 million.

School board officials voted in October to bypass the commissioners’ funding schedule and seek bids for the project. Those bids c ame back a few weeks later several million dollars less than the $50 million estimate.

Berry said a new high school would help students be competitive and could attract new businesses and college graduates to the area.

“We’ve been talking about this high school for 12 years,” Berry said. “If we follow (the commissioners’) resolution, we’ll talk about it for two more ….”

Some county residents said they felt that delaying funding for the high school was the right thing for commissioners to do.

Mike Armstrong said a new high school was not the solution to producing quality learners. He said that school leaders should focus more on acquiring adequate teachers, rather than raising county debt.

“Our public school system is broken,” Armstrong said. “So before we build anymore school buildings — whether we need them or not — we need to fix the system that’s broken. … Bigger is not always better.”

Belfield said he hopes all members of both boards can meet next week without personal agendas being involved.

“We are so divided,” Belfield said. “We are fulfilling the scripture. … We are getting weaker as we think we are getting wiser.”