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County, school officials discuss budget needs
By Derek Hodges
County and school leaders met together Monday (March 13) to discuss the school system’s budget requests for the coming year.
School officials asked for nearly $6.6 million, which represents an increase of $527,058, or 8.68 percent, over last year’s budget.
Most of that increase is due to employee salary raises mandated by the state and rising energy costs, school finance officer David Steinbicker said.
“Our energy cost increase this year has been phenomenal,” Steinbicker.
Discussion among school board members and commissioners centered not around the larger budget, but around the school system’s smaller capital outlay request.
Capital outlay covers the schools’ physical needs, including building and technology requests. That amount increased from $950,000 to nearly $1.2 million, with virtually all of that jump based on technology needs, Steinbicker said.
At the request of Smoky Mountain High School teacher and then-Commissioners’ Chairman Stacy Buchana, commissioners created a $300,000 line item in the school system’s capital outlay budget. That money is dedicated to helping school officials update technology in the schools.
“Before we began the updating, the average age of our computers was five-years old,” Superintendent Sue Nations said. “We all know the way you get an average is you have a whole lot that are older than that, and some that are newer.”
School leaders added nearly $100,000 to the county’s contribution and purchased about 300 computers, Nations said. Buying 300 each year will allow each of the school system’s 1,600 computers to be replaced every five years, she said.
School officials asked for an increase in the technology line item of $92,100. They also requested $128,000 more this year for acquiring software licenses and $10,000 in additional money for parts to repair the computers.
Finding the parts to fix the machines has not been the problem as often as finding someone to fix them, Nations said.
The school system currently employs two people who work full time on technology support. The demand for two people working for the 1,600 computers in the school system has been overwhelming, Nations said.
To ease that burden, school officials included in their current expense request this year an additional technology support position.
Without promising the requested increase, county leaders voiced support for the technology improvements.
“If we can get caught up (with current technology), then maybe we can do the kind of maintenance to keep it caught up,” Commissioner Joe Cowan said.
Commissioners’ Chairman Brian McMahan said he is excited about the opportunities new technology is presenting to those in Western North Carolina.
“We have been isolated in the mountains, but now we’re able to connect with other parts of the state and the world,” McMahan said.
McMahan cited the construction of BalsamWest Fibernet as one of the ways local schools will be able to connect their students with resources from around the world.
Several commissioners expressed concern that the technology they are funding will go unused if teachers are not provided with proper support. New teachers are receiving an education in using today’s technology, Nations said.
“Any good teacher knows you have to have different ways to present the material because different children learn differently,” she said. “These teachers that are coming in already have a handle on the technology. They have to to teach our children. These childen are digital natives. The people in my generation, we’re digital immigrants, but these kids were born into a digital society.”
While the system fell behind in the first years of the technology boom, continuing and increasing the technology budget item will allow school leaders to prevent that from happening again, Nations said.
“I don’t think we understood what we were getting into at first,” she said. “Technology is evolving at a very rapid pace. I think this new plan (to update the computers on a five-year rotation) will help us keep up with that.”
The two groups also discussed the school system’s building needs.
Nations presented a 1999 school board resolution outlining the system’s construction requests. The current school board discussed and endorsed the list during a recent work session, she said.
The first nine items on the 15 items list have been completed or are planned, McMahan said.
Nations agreed the county has made tremendous strides toward completing the requests.
“What’s really encouraging is how much really has been done in a relatively short amount of time,” Nations said. “We’ve learned that everything takes longer than what you thought, it costs more than you thought and it’s never, ever finished when it’s supposed to be.”
Among the projects on the schools’ short-term list that are slated for completion in the next few years are renovations and additions at Smoky Mountain High School, a new kindergarten building at Fairview School, and renovations to A and D buildings at SMHS.
That list also includes construction of a new gym and performing arts center at the high school. Such a complex was previously included in construction plans at the school, which have now been changed to reflect only a footprint for the building.
According to school administrators, several of those attending the Western Athletic Conference basketball tournament, held recently at SMHS, were frustrated with the small size of the school’s gym. School officials have also been discussing the need for practice space for several years. They say building a new facility and using the current gym as an auxiliary gym could provide that needed room.
During March 9 budget discussions, commissioners agreed to postpone work on the complex for other, more pressing needs.
“Maybe someday we can get to it,” Cowan said during that budget session.
During that same meeting, county Manager Ken Westmoreland pointed out school leaders never “formally proposed” construction of a gym and auditorium.
Previous discussions among county leaders – guided by Westmoreland – of school system building needs centered around construction of a new Central Office and bus garage.
Southwestern Community College has expressed an interest in buying the current school bus garage to expand the campus. That would require relocating the garage.
To accomodate that move, Westmoreland proposed March 9 a round-about moving of school system facilities, including constructing a new Central Office, renovating the current Central Office for the School of Alternatives and demolishing the school’s current location, the old Scotts Creek School. The Scotts Creek site could then be used for a bus garage, he said.
However, Westmoreland said March 13 there are no plans for where the new bus garage may be located.
“No, we haven’t had that discussion,” Westmoreland said.
Seemingly confused, Commissioner Conrad Burrell questioned Westmoreland.
“I think, Ken, you were thinking about something on Scotts Creek,” Burrell said.
“Well, that’s just because of the availability of land there,” Westmoreland said.
School officials expressed displeasure at the idea of locating the bus garage at the former Scotts Creek site, saying it would be out of the way for most of the county’s buses. They requested a more central location, like that of the current bus garage.
“Where it is right now it’s within 1 mile of 60 percent of the fleet,” Assistant Superintendent Steve Jones said.
Both groups agreed to continue discussion of what they hope will become a joint-use facility for the county and school system.
After the session, Nations said she also would not support the idea of constructing a new Central Office when there are other needs in the school system.
“A new office for us administrators isn’t high on my priority list,” she said. “It seems like your big concerns are the needs at the schools and the bus garage. The kids deserve a new building more than I do.”
Nations also expressed concern about the idea to put children back into the Central Office building. The building originally served as the county’s segregated school until it was closed in 1965 and renovated to hold administrative offices.
“That Central Office is not suitable for kids,” Nations said.
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