DOBSON — Surry County Schools will need about $1.4 million for special projects in the upcoming fiscal year, according to school officials.
Dr. Travis Reeves, Surry County Schools superintendent, relayed his district’s capital needs to the Surry County Board of Commissioners Thursday evening at one of the county board’s many budget workshops.
Ongoing capital expenses such as maintenance costs are funded by way of another per-pupil allotment from the county. In the 2016-17 fiscal year county commissioners provided $110 per student in capital outlay funds, an increase of $10 over the year prior.
The county district is requesting another increase to the line of funding in the 2017-18 fiscal year, with a request for county commissioners to increase the capital outlay rate from $110 to $150.
The increase would amount to $318,280 in additional county funding for the district.
Reeves told the board there are also some large capital projects he and his board have placed at the top of a long list of concerns which need to be addressed. Reeves told the board that these items are part of Phase II of a three-phase plan.
The price tag associated with a bleacher project at East Surry is estimated at $562,375.
“It’s the most cost effective way,” said plant manager Robert Draughn of a plan to replace the visitor side bleachers.
The visitor bleachers are concrete risers that are crumbling, explained Draughn.
They are not even structurally sound enough to support metal bleachers which might have been placed on top of the concrete, added Reeves. That was one proposed solution for the risers, which were poured more than 50 years ago.
Reeves said the district’s plan is to pour new footings which will support bleachers constructed with a steel frame and aluminum seats and walkways. Though the bleachers will be constructed over the concrete bleachers, the old bleachers will not support the weight of the new ones. The concrete will be left in place to prevent erosion on the steep bank.
The project would include adding some handicapped parking spaces close to the stadium, added Draughn.
The district is also requesting the county fund a $240,000 roof replacement for the second wing at North Surry. Also in Phase II is a $60,000 roof replacement at the district’s central office, $35,000 for tennis court resurfacing at North Surry, $30,000 to repair the track surface at Surry Central and $15,000 to replace baseball field lighting at East Surry, bringing the total for special capital requests in the 2017-18 fiscal year to about $942,000.
School officials listed another request, the removal of buildings located at a recently acquired property near Flat Rock Elementary School, at a price tag of “TBD.”
He explained that he did not know how much of the work the county could perform with its equipment. Thus, he was unable to estimate a price for the work.
The county approved purchase of the land last year to help provide additional parking and to ease traffic problems due to parent pickup.
Transportation
Rodney Hardy, director of transportation for the school district, said footage from bus cameras is useful in many circumstances.
Such footage can help school administrators decipher what happened in an instance of a dispute or fight between students, explained Hardy. Cameras placed on the stop-arm of a school bus can provide evidence needed to convict somebody of passing the bus while children are getting off and on.
In the case of a traffic incident on March 23, footage from an on-board bus camera proved a driver of another vehicle was at fault in what at first appeared to be an accident in which the bus driver may have failed to yield right of way.
However, Hardy told the county board of the 160 buses in the fleet which supports all three school districts, 80 have no camera systems and many others have stopped working because they are seven to eight years old.
The district’s plan is to put cameras on all 80 buses throughout the course of the next two fiscal years. The proposed camera systems include eight cameras per bus, according to Hardy.
The systems cost $3,500 each and the district is asking the board to consider splitting the $140,000 replacement cost over the two fiscal years.
A wrecker is another need in Hardy’s department.
Reeves said the wrecker owned by the district is rated about 10,000 pounds under the towing capacity needed to tow the district’s 72-passenger buses.
While the N.C. Department of Public Instruction will pick up about $80,000 associated with the cost of the wrecker, the county would need to fund another $96,000. Since the wrecker services the buses used by all three districts, the districts have split the costs in their budget requests.
Hardy said the wrecker is used about once per week. A contracted wrecker charges between $150 and $250 for an average service call, and a tow to Greensboro — where buses could be serviced — costs about $500.
Hardy noted the towing savings will pay for the truck in a couple of years.
Another cost included in the request was $250,000 for design fees for a new bus garage.
As previously reported, Surry County Schools’ bus garage is not large enough to house the district’s larger buses.
“I’m stunned by this $250,000 figure for architectural design,” said Commissioner Larry Johnson.
Reeves told commissioners the figure was recommended by Bill Powell, who completed facilities studies for all three of the county’s school systems in 2013 and 2014.
“If we spend all our money on an architect, we won’t have any left for the garage,” added Commissioner Buck Golding.
After some more conversation, Hardy said, “I think we are getting into splitting hairs.”
Reeves pointed out the whole of his district’s special capital requests is about a half million dollars less than the district’s 2016-17 fiscal year request.
He noted the request is purposefully smaller, since the district is anticipating starting major capital projects in the 2018-19 fiscal year using a share of $30 million the county intends to borrow to address school capital needs.
