By JOHN HOFHEIMER
Leader senior staff writer
Jacksonville needs a new middle school, but not at the cost of transporting all its middle-school students to the new Sylvan Hills Middle School for a year or two during construction. That was the one specific thing the 50 people who attended the Thursday afternoon meeting on the future of area schools could agree upon.
But any of those expecting to pick a fight with Operations Director Derek Scott of the Pulaski County Special School District over specifics or even the venue or time of the meeting were dissuaded or disappointed to find that Scott had no agenda or plan other than to help them pick the way forward to new and better schools.
Scott stressed that nothing was set in stone.
“What I’m married to is getting kids in good facilities,” said Scott, whose father taught in Jacksonville.
Scott spoke on invitation of the Jacksonville Chamber of Commerce’s Education Committee at 3 p.m., a make-up meeting for the one cancelled by snow and ice earlier in the week, and while the original meeting notice appeared several times in the newspaper, the makeup meeting notice did not.
FORM COMMITTEE
At least one committee of volunteers will be formed to consider consolidating some schools and locating and building new schools.
Construction czar
Scott, a recently retired Air Force colonel, oversaw maintenance and construction of new and existing structures for 18 years before being hired by new PCSSD Superintendent Charles Hopson just prior to the beginning of this school year.
Scott told those assembled at the Jacksonville Community Center that every $1 million saved through consolidation of small and old schools--most of them elementaries--could leverage about $15 million in bonded debt. That’s enough money to build a new elementary school, he said.
Many of the people most supportive of Scott’s approach to building and rehabilitating Jacksonville area schools have also been involved — some for decades — in the movement to split off Jacksonville area schools from the PCSSD and form a new district.
Attending the meeting, for instance, were former state Rep. Pat Bond, retired teachr Martha Whatley, attorneys Ben Rice, Mike Wilson and Patrick Wilson, bankers Larry Wilson and John Hardwick, and the meeting was chaired by realtor Daniel Gray.
OTHERS ATTENDING
Ivory Tillman, the local NAACP president who has been active in Jacksonville area school issues, PCSSD board member Tom Stuthard and former board members Danny Gililland and Shana Chaplin also attended and spoke.
In December, Scott had drawn up a proposal that could result in consolidating some Jacksonville area schools, closing some and building at least one new middle school and elementary and major remodeling of the Jacksonville High School, but Scott stressed that nothing is set in stone.
Scott said the district hoped to pay for the improvements with an estimated $181.5 million saved from maintenance and operation of schools the district might close.
SCOTT’S PROPOSAL
But Scott’s proposals for Jacksonville, the Robinson area and also regarding the small inefficient elementary schools like Harris, Scott and College Station stirred deep-felt opposition, so he didn’t even bring a copy of his proposal to the Jacksonville meeting.
“We need to repair and replace schools,” he said, but which schools and how fast is up to you, he told those attending.
The only other given is that patrons of the district are in no mood to approve millage increases to pay for new schools.
Consolidation would save on heating, cooling, maintenance, operation and some staffing cuts, he said.
He estimated $1 million could be saved by closing Jacksonville Elementary School, and sending the students to nearby elementary schools. “That’s about enough to pay for a new elementary school,” he said.
Part of his initial proposal that seemed to have some traction with those at the meeting and those he had heard from is tearing down Jacksonville Middle School and building administration offices and a kitchen at the site, flanked on one side by a new elementary school, on the other by a new middle school.
USE OLD JUNIOR HIGH
Rice challenged him saying area residents don’t want to ship their middle school students to Sylvan Hills for two years while the new complex is constructed.
Scott said many people had told him that.
Rice suggested moving the middle school into the old junior high next door instead, while demolition and construction take place.
“The slate is open,” said Scott. He suggested those present form committees to investigate possibilities. “I don’t have specifics,” he said.
Regarding consolidation of Jacksonville High School and North Pulaski High School, one woman said, “Falcons don’t want to be Devils and Devils don’t want to be Falcons,” referring to the schools by their mascots.
But former school board member Danny Gililland said all his children had gone to North Pulaski. “I bleed North Pulaski,” he said, “but we have to do what’s best for the students.”
Tillman, who has attended about every meeting for 10 years about the future of Jacksonville schools, asked how fast there could be new schools.
Scott said if the decision were made to demolish the old Jacksonville Middle School and build a new one, demolition could begin this summer, with 18 months of construction to follow.
TWO YEARS
“Two years from this summer, you could be in it,” Scott said.
“But we may be late to the trough to do it for next year.”
“Apparently we have no bonding capacity left,” said Rice. “You are basing it on savings. How much study have you done?”
What’s still uncertain is whether bond underwriters would be satisfied with income from projected consolidation savings as the revenue to service debt. Scott said he would be meeting soon with bond advisors.
He said they would need to “drill down into the numbers really hard,” to establish the bonding capacity.
As for getting millage increases to pay for new schools, “There is a historical lack of trust,” Scott said. He said if the district could prove its trustworthiness, then perhaps in time the patrons would be willing to raise the millage.
STARTING POINT
Scott’s original recommendations, which seem to be accepted as a starting point for figuring Jacksonville’s facilities future, look like this:
North Pulaski High School would serve all area ninth- and 10th-grade students, while Jacksonville High School would serve all juniors and seniors.
Jacksonville Middle School students would be reassigned and the Jacksonville Middle School building would be demolished.
The Star Academy would be moved.
Tolleson Elementary would be closed, its students would be reassigned to Arnold Drive Elementary and Cato Elementary schools.
Jacksonville Elementary School would be closed and the students moved to adjacent elementary schools and the Adkins pre-Kindergarten school would be closed and pre-K moved to another school.
Those closures alone are estimated to save an estimated $3 million a year — money then would be available to demolish the existing Jacksonville Middle School and replace it for an estimated $60 million with a new kitchen and administration complex and a new elementary school attached on one side, a new middle school attached on the other.
Then, the Jacksonville and Northwood middle school students would be assigned to the new school and Northwood would be remodeled and converted to an elementary school.
Students from the nearby elementary school zones would go to the new elementary and the old elementary schools would be closed.
Jacksonville High School would be partially replaced with a new $45 million building. North Pulaski High School would be closed and all area district students would be moved to the new Jacksonville High School.
A new Arnold Drive Ele-mentary is not in this plan, but Scott met last week with the deputy director for family affairs from the Defense Department, which is choosing from 189 schools serving military dependents, which it intends to build new schools for.
Should Jacksonville succeed in its efforts to form a standalone school district, it could be expected to pick up the debt service for the new buildings, Scott said.
Currently, Sherwood, which will open the new Sylvan Hills Middle School next fall, is not on the plan, but Scott said he hoped to make repairs where needed in that area.
UNDERinvesting
Scott said that the industry standard is that a repair budget should be about 1.5 percent of the replacement cost of buildings.
“We’ve been underinvesting for years,” he said.
As for consolidations, closings and taking on new bonded indebtedness for repairing and replacing buildings, Scott agreed that the state Education Department and the courts have an important role.
