The Sunflower County Consolidated School District may soon take the next step in determining how to proceed with the district’s need for better facilities for its high school students.
The board members along with Superintendent Miskia Davis met on Monday for a work session and could soon make a vote to move forward and initiate a plan to construct one new high school in the county and renovate the other.
However board President Edward Thomas cautioned that a definite decision has not been made.
“We’ve got to go back and get some new numbers, we’re almost at square one,” he said.
Board member Debra Johnson added, “We’ve not voted on anything. This is just totally a discussion on our opinions.”
Talk of new and upgraded school facilities within the district is nothing new. Last fall, the board hired Brown & Associates to conduct community meetings and surveys regarding the feasibility of constructing one or two new high schools, as well as bringing others up to date.
Each individual member of the board was allowed to share his or her thoughts on the matter and although no official vote was taken, they appear to be leaning towards one school instead of two.
The group said based on previous conversations, two new facilities would cost around $32 million and two years ago the district’s bonding capacity was only $16 million.
One centrally located school is not a viable option because it would need to be located on property the district owns in Blaine, and there is currently no infrastructure there.
Plus, as member Torrey Bell pointed out, logistics would be a major issue.
Bell said he was on board with the idea of building one school and renovating the other because, “A central location just doesn’t seem feasible at this time because we don’t have anywhere to put it.”
Johnson said Gentry was in the direst need of either being replaced or repaired.
“And repairing is kind of a slim-and-none proposition,” she said.
Johnson stated that she was not opposed to building one school and repairing the other.
However, she questioned whether the district would be able to float a sufficient bond considering the small amount of the population that responded to the survey conducted by Brown & Associates in 2017. The survey results reflected that many citizens want two new high schools.
However, Johnson said the survey did not reflect the totality of the county’s population.
“I’m not sure of where a bond issue would go in Sunflower County,” she said.
Thomas asserted that any attempt to just repair Gentry would not be fruitful because of the number of problems that currently exist.
“When they tried to do those bathrooms they had so many problems with the old pipes that they almost couldn’t do anything,” he said.
Members Emma Golden and Melanie Townsend-Blackmon also voiced their opinions in favor of building one school, but not leaving the other out if a sufficient bond amount could be floated.
Townsend-Blackmon said, “I know you have to start somewhere. Realistically Gentry is worse off, so if we’re able to get a bond issue passed, go with Gentry first.”
This is a continuance of a long-standing discussion that started more than three years ago. Thomas said they began exploring the possibility during the tenure of former superintendent Debra Dace.
The district would have to float a bond in order to fund the project. However, they cannot do that until the members make a determination on how they will use the money.
“We need to make that decision and then we can move forward with the bonding process,” Davis said.
At this point, the group is not precisely sure of the district’s bonding capacity. Even if the aforementioned $16 million is still close to accurate, Davis said based on conversations with an architect it is insufficient. It will not build two facilities and will be difficult to fund even one.
Johnson mentioned a scenario whereby they could construct a basic school for about $12 million and use the remainder of the money to do renovations to the other. However, there is still the matter of if they will be able to issue a bond large enough to do even that.
“We’re talking bare bones at $12 million,” she added.
Before a bond can be issued it first must be voted upon by the citizens of Sunflower County. It has to be put on the ballot and without a special election, and the earliest possible election is not until 2019.
A consultant has provided them with a step-by-step guide to show what their next move should be. However, they continued to emphasize that they are nowhere near a starting point on erecting a building.
