VAIDEN — Despite a protest by board member Jim Strong, the Carroll County School Board voted to wait another month before discussing how to handle the vacated property of Hathorn Elementary School in Vaiden.
Strong told the board he would prefer to stay and deal with the matter Thursday night.
Kenneth DeLoach said he doesn’t understand why two appraisals of the property were so different.
“It looks like there’s something fishy,” he said.
The board’s second appraisal was by Eddie Stuckey of Greenwood for $155,000. He valued the land for $53,500 and the building for $101,500. DeLoach insisted the district could plant trees on the land, which Superintendent Billy Joe Ferguson said would be three or four acres.
After the meeting’s agenda was concluded, Ferguson assured the board the appraisal was a legitimate one from a certified appraiser.
“There’s nothing fishy about it. We hired certified people. I didn’t ask them for anything,” he said.
“Marshall Elementary needs things. There’s a lot of work that needs doing there. We could take $150,000 and do a lot,” Ferguson said. “Let’s do something for the kids at Marshall.”
During the summer, Central Mississippi Inc. of Winona offered a bid of $150,000 for the property to use it for Head Start, which houses its students in mobile classrooms.
The city of Vaiden has also asked for the school to sell it the property for $25,000. Mayor Melvin Hawthorne said he would like to lease part of the building to CMI and use other parts of the property for community events.
“Every month you wait, the building gets older,” Ferguson said. “The Head Start children don’t have a building they need.”
On a motion by Laura Davis, with a second from DeLoach, the board agreed to take the information home and think it over until next month. The vote was 4-1, with Strong casting the negative vote.
Also Thursday, the board applauded the district’s recognition as a “successful” district and honored teachers whose students showed growth as measured on state tests with plaques.
Testing coordinator Judy Tompkins told the board the district has come up to “successful” from last year’s designation of “at risk of failing.”
“We’re not where we want to be, but we’re very happy,” she said.
In other business, the board:
• Agreed to pay business manager Mimi Alldread $7,200 for three years of taking board minutes, transcribing them and furnishing them to the board as well as “taking care of whatever the board asks for,” according to Davis.
Ben Shute voted no on Davis’ motion to go back three years and pay Alldread. The vote was 4-1.
• Approved budget and plans for use of federal Title I and Title II funds.
• Instructed Ferguson to get an appraisal on land and a building from 16th Section land that does not have a current leaseholder and to address the appraisal to the board.
“We’re the ones that are responsible for making the decision,” Shute said.
