RFP Staff
♦ The outgoing Board of Education voted 5 to 2 on Thursday evening to push through what Tuesday’s voters objected to at polls. When they voted in Travis Allen and Dean Hunter and voted out L.A. Overcash and Kay Wright Norman, they were largely saying they did not want an over-priced, unconsolidated, and now “shrinking” Central Office certain to face typical Salisbury construction overruns. This watered down Central Office on a postage stamp is not a certainty to be built. Obstacles may still reside in its path. On December the 8th when the new board is seated, they may consider better options elsewhere. If the Central Office waited 23 years–it can wait a few more months. The school system has far more pressing needs.
The building of a new Central Office is of little consequence and certainly not a high priority if someone looks at the school system’s actual building needs. Anyone who considers pushing the Central Office though an historic moment needs a dose of smelling salts. This downsized edifice to the money changing hands has nothing to do with education. The push for the Central Office is so typical of what goes on here. Land swaps, questionable bids, and closed doors–so Salisbury.
For now the current price tag is $7,984,503.
The construction of a new Central Office has nothing to do with supporting improved student achievement or attracting teachers to one of the lower performing school systems in North Carolina. This proposed Central Office won’t do any better than a windowless concrete box with a green teapot lid on it. It doesn’t show anyone we care about education, but it could line some pockets.
Miller, Norman, Overcash, Kennedy, and Cox voted the 500 N. Main version of the Central Office. Chuck Hughes and Josh Wagner voted no. The school board also voted 5-2 (Hughes and Wagner saying no) to approving a contract with Barnhill Contracting for a guaranteed maximum price of $7,404, 503. The school system faces a final cost said to be somewhere in the vicinity of $330,000 in architectural and engineering fees, $30,000 in furniture and equipment, $45,000 in soil tests, and a $175,000 contingency fee.
Project revenues currently available are $8,025,000 which arrive from the Rowan County Commissioners’ $6.5 million, $875,000 from the Robertson Family Foundation, $150,000 from an unknown donor, and $500,000 from the City of Salisbury.
The Central Office on the 500 block of North Main is still not a done deal. Potential obstacles sit in its path.
• A new school board will be seated on December 8th–they may have other ideas. Perhaps they might choose to investigate how 500 N. Main came to be. The new school board might want to build on a larger property they already own and construct an actual “consolidated” Central Office. No need to rush into anything.
• Who knows what the new county commissioners will do. They might question this project. Certainly many far better spots exist.
• The LGC might not approve the loan. Perhaps a taxpayer or group may begin a suit against the project going forward which would make the LGC apply the brakes.
Also at the meeting the school board approved the hiring of Brooke Zehmer as the new principal of the Landis Elementary School. She starts on January 1st of next year. At present she is the assistant principal at the Donna Lee Loflin and Lindley Park Elementary Schools in Asheboro.
