The Simpson County School Board has voted to purchase property on Highway 49 north of Magee to build a new consolidated high school.
A special called meeting was held at noon on Tuesday of last week with the intention of moving forward with the purchase of property for the school district to build the consolidated high school. The property is a 103 acre tract of land that was owned by Phillip Davis, formerly of Mendenhall. The property is located just north of Howard Industries and south of Air South Heating and Cooling on Highway 49.
Final details of the sale have not been set, but the purchase is expected to be final within the next 60 days. The school board voted four to zero with everyone voting in favor of moving forward with the land deal. Member Stacey Herrin was unable to attend the meeting.
This is the same property that was formerly rumored by the board as having been “unsuitable” with no specific reason as to why it was unsuitable.
Time was running out because a bond issue election to fund the project is slated for Tuesday, March 29. Ballots must be prepared 45 days prior to the election.
According to Superintendent Dr. Toriano Holloway, the cost of the high school will be $51 million with $39 million needed for the high school and $12 million going toward a fine arts complex and athletic facilities. The balance of $10 million of the previously published $61 million cost of the facility is Esser funding from the federal government, which will be spent on on-going projects at Simpson Central and Mendenhall Elementary, not the highs school. This was originally printed in error, saying that the $22 million was to be used at the new high school. The newspaper regrets this error.
The school board held another special called meeting last Thursday afternoon. The purpose of this meeting included the evaluation of Dr. Holloway’s performance since he has been employed with the school district.
At the meeting Chairman Christian Carrico of the Simpson County Development Foundation presented a resolution to the board. It recognized the importance of new school facilities that would enhance and improve effectiveness of education in the secondary public education with emphasis on academics, athletics and fine arts.
The resolution also stated the Foundation board’s support of a bond issue to assist in building the new facilities.
A community advisory committee was appointed to promote the bond issue. However, the names of committee members have not been made available to the newspaper, despite that type of information being required under the open meetings law as adopted by the state. The committee reportedly began meeting last October. Any committee of the school board, despite its size, falls under the same guidelines as the board and is required to announce their meetings. Dr. Holloway said this is not the case because the this committee is not appointed by the board.
The next scheduled meeting of the board is set for next Tuesday, Feb. 8, at 4 p.m.
The official ballot on the vote for the bond issue on March 29 will read as follows:
“Shall the Simpson County School District issue its bonds in the maximum principal amount of $39,000,000 to raise money for the purpose of paying the costs, including the costs of borrowing, of purchasing, erecting, repairing, equipping, remodeling and enlarging school buildings and related facilities, purchasing land therefor, establishing and equipping school athletic fields and necessary facilities connected therewith, and providing necessary water, light, heating, air conditioning and sewerage facilities for such school buildings and related facilities, including, but not limited to constructing and equipping a high school? FOR THE BOND ISSUE ( ) AGAINST THE BOND ISSUE ( )
