A member of the Greenwood Leflore Consolidated School Board would like the board to get the ball rolling again on the possibility of using bond funds for school construction.
“At some point as a board, we need to solidify or finalize what we would like to present to the community as far as presenting a bond issue,” Dr. Ro’Shaun Bailey told his peers during Tuesday’s school board meeting.
Earlier this year the board met in several closed-door sessions to discuss the ramifications of a bond issue. The board had also heard from three architectural firms during regularly scheduled meetings and work sessions regarding potential construction from bond money.
Results from an online survey released last fall showed that building a new high school was the top choice of what should be done with the money if a bond issue was approved.
Of the nearly 3,000 participants, which included students, parents and other stakeholders, 48% said if they could only choose one new school to be built with bond money it should be a consolidated high school.
For the district to issue bonds, it would first have to be put to a countywide referendum and would need approval from 60% of the voters.
During Tuesday’s meeting, Kelvin Pulley, the board’s attorney, said that the board’s next step would be to pass a resolution that would specify what the board would like to construct and where it would be, according to the law.
Pulley also said that he will send an email to the board later this week including information about state law regarding what type of resolution the board should pass. No action was taken by the board.
In other business:
- The board voted 3-2 to reject a $575,000 construction proposal from KT Builder to waterproof the school district’s building on West Church Street.
Samantha Milton, Dr. Kalanya Moore and Jackie Lewis cast the dissenting votes.
Charles Johnson, the district’s assistant superintendent, said that water had seeped into the basement of the building. The proposed waterproofing of the building would not include any interior repairs to the building or address the mold that has grown inside, Johnson said.
The district used to operate its central office out of that building but has since moved to 1902 U.S. 82 West, where the board holds most of its meetings and work sessions.
When asked whether the district could afford to fix that building, Kellia Washington, the district’s chief of finance, said that it could but that it would be wiser to focus on addressing school campuses or the central office, rather than both.
Dr. Mary Brown, the superintendent, said the building on U.S. 82 is much better suited to be the central office than the downtown building.
- The board approved a resolution to allow the district to submit an application with the Mississippi State Department of Health’s Adopt-a-School: Provider Partnerships for COVID-19 Vaccinations in Schools program. The program would allow the state Health Department to provide vaccinations for students 12 and older at the schools.
- The board voted to extend the district’s extended COVID-19 sick leave through the Families First Coronavirus Response Act, allowing district employees to be paid sick leave if they are infected with the respiratory disease.
The act, passed by Congress last March, provides funding for COVID-19 testing as well as allowing employers to provide two weeks of paid sick leave for employees unable to work because of the pandemic.The school district’s extended sick leave, which originally expired at the end of June, will now run through Oct. 31.
- Contact Gerard Edic at 581-7239 or gedic@gwcommonwealth.com.
