The rundown on Eastern
For those of you who weren't at Tuesday's meeting, following is an explanation of the options the school board had to consider in locating students after this school year and rebuilding Eastern Guilford High:
1. The board approved the request of $1.7 million in state lottery funds to help pay for $8.9 million in remediation work at Eastern, Kernodle and Hairston middle schools. That would free up local capital funds to help with Eastern or other projects. County Commissioners could approve this request Dec. 14.
2. The board hired Alex N. Sill Co. to negotiate an insurance settlement with the Department of Public Instruction. School attorney Jill Wilson said she expected Sill's fee to be no more than $200,000.
3. The board decided to create a village of modular units at the Eastern Guilford site on Peeden Drive. The arrangement could cost between $2.7 million and $3.1 million, depending on which grades are placed on the site. Freshmen could end up at Eastern Guilford Middle or the old Gibsonville Elementary. These estimates include setting up and relocating the existing 10 mobile classrooms on the property.
The board decided the Carolina Corporate Center was too expensive a route. The district estimated it would cost $50 per square foot to renovate and $5.58 to lease $150,000 square feet in the building. This would put the lease cost for two years at $9.2 million. Using Fidelity Realty Investments' estimate of $20 per square foot to renovate the space would amount to $4.7 million.
Hill said the $50 per square foot renovating cost was based on needing to bring the nearly 40-year-old building up to code: installing a new fire alarm system, rerouting the sprinkler system, moving and adding electrical wiring, improving the heating and air conditioning system, adding bathrooms and science labs, etc.
The board did not spend too much time considering placing Eastern students at other high schools or keeping them at the Browns Summit and GTCC sites (GTCC has not yet offered to give them a second year on the Greensboro campus).
4. Last, the board voted to build Eastern using $10 million in available state insurance funds and a $41 million certificate of participation from the county (which commissioners must approve).
The board could have increased the loan amount to $127.3 million, which would have covered either rebuilding Eastern and work at Jamestown Middle, Ragsdale High or rebuilding Eastern and purchasing the Carolina Corporate Center. The district would have needed an additional $7 million to fund the second approach.
Alan Duncan and Garth Hebert (not yet sworn in) said they didn't want to tie up lottery funds on either Eastern or the extra projects. Other board members said they didn't want to wait for a bond vote to commit to rebuilding Eastern.
We'll see what ends up on the project list for a bond referendum. They will likely talk about it next Tuesday.
Comments (7)
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M E D I A
A D V I S O R Y
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
E.C. HUEY’S CANDIDACY FOR SCHOOL BOARD
TO BE ANNOUNCED TUESDAY
GREENSBORO (29 November 2006) – Guilford County 2008 School Board at-large candidate E.C. Huey will officially announce the kickoff of his countywide candidacy next Tuesday afternoon at 5:00 p.m. on the sidewalk in front of Guilford County Schools’ Administrative Offices on N. Eugene Street in downtown Greensboro. Mr. Huey will make a brief statement and will take questions from the news media.
Huey will then present remarks to the Guilford County Board of Education at its 6pm regular meeting.
Copies of Huey’s remarks will be made available to media representatives gathered. Supporters of his candidacy are invited to attend.
Commenting on last night’s Board meeting, Huey said, “Tuesday’s Board meeting and debate about the future of Eastern Guilford H.S. proves that there needs to be new leadership on the Board. I heard the “R” word [bond referendum] bantered around last night and I’ve gone on record saying that until the mismanagement of taxpayer money ceases, I will not support a bond referendum. I believe the System needs to be more fiscally conservative in putting its children first.”
Posted on November 29, 2006 9:03 PM
Mr. Huey,
If you are going to run, I hope you will come to all of the BOE meetings. Any chance you get, I hope you will address the BOE and lay out your plan for change. Can you come Tuesday night and tell the BOE your vision of education in Guilford County?
Posted on November 30, 2006 9:14 AM
Joe is right, if there is any chance of beating Dot the entire county must know you and what you stand for. You need to make commitment to speak out loudly and often. You would be surprised at how many people watch the boe meetings! Free publicity!
Posted on November 30, 2006 9:26 AM
Morgan,
Will you provide us some information on the classroom pods or whatever we are calling them? Who is the manufacturer? Who is leasing the pods to GCS? Has GCS done business with this company before? Which school districts have these pods been used with success? What do the parents think about these pods at those schools?
Posted on November 30, 2006 9:51 AM
Mr. Stafford, Deb: not to worry, it will be very loud. Many of my positions are on my new website, www.hueyforguilfordschoolboard.org; simply page through each page and you will learn where I'm coming from. I will be making some brief remarks at the 6pm meeting and I do look forward to your support. BTW, this will not be a HP campaign, this will be a countywide campaign and I have my eyes on the prize...which is putting ALL children FIRST!
Posted on November 30, 2006 9:38 PM
Mr. Huey,
Just to warn you: If your comments come off as a campaign speech, you may be interrupted. Alan Duncan did this when Ray Riffe started entering the campaigning territory at a recent meeting.
Posted on December 1, 2006 3:01 PM
Any views on education should not cause a problem. The problem is when a speaker uses the platform to ask people to vote for him/her. Good luck.
Posted on December 1, 2006 3:38 PM