School district will soon seek bids for new Lower Elementary flooring

The local Board of Education voted Tuesday, Jan. 18 to seek bids for the removal of asbestos flooring materials on the Franklin County Lower Elementary School campus immediately following completion of the current academic year.

“A few months ago, we knew we had this project that would be funded through ESSER III and would require the services of an architect,” Superintendent of Education Chris Kent told the panel.

ESSER III is an acronym for the third round of federal coronavirus-related Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief funds.

Kent noted the district had previously retained Bailey Architectural Group to provide professional services for the scope of work to be implemented.

“The lower elementary school and the building out back where Special Services used to be still has the asbestos floor tiles — the last of that material in our district buildings. We have endeavored to get this out a little bit at a time, so this summer we plan to tear it out and replace all the flooring.”

Kent noted the budget for the project will include the rental of storage units where furniture and equipment from FCLE will be placed until after all floors have been replaced.

“There’s going to be a whole lot of work going on this summer,” he said. “In addition, the office is going to be moved to the front room when you come into the lower elementary school and a second-layer of security doors will be installed as a safety feature that will require people to be ‘buzzed through’ to access the building past the office.”

Kent said some of the cost of the work as it relates to the office relocation and security features will be paid for through district funds.

“We are already budgeted to take care of some of these things this summer,” he added.

The superintendent characterized the overall project as intricate because most of the FCLE classrooms have individual bathrooms and the third grade hall has community restroom facilities.

“We’re going to try to upgrade those, but what we will be able to do is going to be based on bids and what we can afford to do,” Kent said. “The flooring is going to be done because it is already funded ... for the rest, we’re going to get bids in and see where we’re at financially and will hopefully get it knocked out this summer.”

He told the board the effort to seek bids needed to start now so that demolition and construction could begin as soon as the campus closes its doors for the summer break.

Kent said, with the board’s approval of his request during Tuesday’s meeting, the process of advertising for contractors would begin just as soon as possible.

“It will ultimately be up to the board to accept the low bids for the work, and we want to have someone in place before May,” he continued.

District 5 School Board Member Michael Coleman asked Kent if he felt like the work could realistically be completed before the start of the 2022-2023 academic year in August.

“That’s our plan,” Kent responded. “We’re going to rely heavily on our architect to talk to whoever bids for the work to explain the window of opportunity to get it done.

“For a project like this, weather will not be a factor because the contractor will be working indoors.”

The panel voted by a 4-0 margin to seek bids for the FCLE project with District 2 representative Vanessa Walker not present for the meeting.

In other action during the session, the Franklin County Board of Education:

• Reappointed its leadership, which includes District 1 representative Gloria Hayes as president, Walker as vice president; and District 3 representative Tywana Lee-Reed as secretary, for the 2022 calendar year.

Coleman offered a motion to keep the officer slate in place and District 4 representative Joyce Calcote seconded the motion.

• During the public participation portion of the meeting, Franklin County resident Charles Chapman spoke to the board.

“I came in to pay my taxes and saw in the newspaper where you were giving the teachers $1,000,” Chapman said. “I also saw in the paper where 127 teachers were getting that with a total cost of $200-and-something thousand because we are paying retirement and all of that.

“I guess my point is all of those teachers are under contract and getting paid ... why are our schools, which are in such dire shape financially, having to do fund-raisers for everything in the world?”

Chapman also took exception to the use of his personal email address in which he said he gets two to three notes per week asking for him to financially support local school activities.

“If we got money like that, but don’t have money to educate what we’ve got going on now, couldn’t some of this money be spent toward that ... educational (purposes) to help kids catch up from (the coronavirus),” Chapman continued.

“I talked to one or two of the board members and they said they thought it was mandated for the money to go to the teachers. There’s nothing mandated from the government for that.”

Chapman shifted gears to say he had asked for some information from the school district and that he appreciated Kent in helping him get it.

“You’ve got a new policy that you have to be specific and so many days to do it,” he added. “I asked to get on the agenda and they said you (Board President Hayes) had the authority to put me on the agenda. But, finally, I got the board policy on the meeting agenda and your name is never mentioned. So, I see how to get on the agenda and I will be on the agenda next month to discuss some other issues that’s coming up.”

In going back to compensation for district personnel, Chapman noted his research had found the average for elementary employees was in the neighborhood of $50,447 while the high school was a little higher at $51,000.

“It seems like the ($1,000 stipend to personnel approved by the board) could have been spent better somewhere else,” he said.

• Accepted bids for the sale of school-owned timber in two separate sections of Franklin County.

For Section 33-Township 5 North-Range 1 East, LandMax Timber Co., submitted the highest bid among three companies — $6.52 for pine pulp, $10.53 for pine chip, $20 for pine saw and $7 for hardwood pulp — for 283 acres.

For Section 16-Township 7 North-Range 4 East, LandMax Timber Co., had the highest bids from among two companies submitting proposals for 43 acres.

The LandMax bid was $5.05 for pine pulp, $16 for pine chip, $22 for pine saw and $7 for hardwood pulp.

• Authorized three farm-residential leases and a single residential lease involving school district lands that recently underwent reappraisal as required by the state every five years.

The board also voted to reclassify a parcel from farm-residential lease to a forestry lease in Section 16-Township 7 North-Range 3 East.

The next board meeting will be held at 4:30 p.m., Tuesday, Feb. 15 in the offices of the Superintendent of Education.