The Sunflower County Consolidated School District (SCCSD) is moving ahead with plans to renovate Moorhead Middle School to be ready for the school year 2018-2019.
At a June 27 meeting, the district had announced plans to send sixth through eighth graders from Moorhead to Inverness Elementary for the 2017-2018 school year while Moorhead Middle School is renovated.
The plan is for the middle school to be expanded to include K-8, and Rosser Elementary in Moorhead would be closed beginning in the 2018-2019 school year. The change is due in part to an enrollment drop from 167 in 2004 to 89 in 2017 at Moorhead Middle, which is the newer of the schools, built in 2000.
William Mills of Mills & Mills Architect firm appeared before the board in a special call meeting on Tuesday night and presented his proposal and information regarding the cost associated with the proposed renovations. Mills said that upon approval the bidding process would begin soon after.
Superintendent Miskia Davis told the board that she and board member Emma Golden met with a group of citizens at the Moorhead school on Aug. 9 and showed them the proposed plan for the school and
“It went over extremely well,” Davis said, “Every one was please. We had absolutely no complaints, so everybody’s onboard.”
Davis had promise parents and community members that the school improvements would be complete by the start of the next school year so the Moorhead students could be moved back to the newly renovated facility.
The proposed plan provides for 12 new classrooms for Moorhead Middle, 4,000 square feet of restroom facilities and storage space plus improvements to the existing gym, which include new floor, exterior doors, roof, new HVAC units and painting.
In addition to Moorhead Middle, the plan spells out foundation repair for the front entrance of Inverness Elementary and a sidewalk and porch canopy, work on the fourth and fifth grade buildings at Ruleville Central Elementary and repairs to the boiler building and cafeteria at Drew Hunter Middle School.
