Monday, December 17, 2007
County schools discuss growth
December 5, 2007
A fifth school district and two new high schools were a few of the ideas discussed Tuesday by Lee County Board of Education members.
The Lee County Board of Education held a work session Tuesday to brainstorm about a building program to handle current and future student enrollment increases in the school system. No action was taken during the session.
Lee County Schools Interim Superintendent Dr. Stephen Nowlin told board members the school system needs to achieve three goals with the new building program: prepare for natural growth in student enrollment; remove more than 40 portable classrooms currently used in the Smiths Station attendance area; and prepare for BRAC, which is expected to add about 1,200 students to the Lee County Schools system by 2010.
“We’re already overcrowded regardless if they come,” Nowlin told board members.
The school system needs to pull up to 2,000 students from the current Smiths Station attendance area to handle projected student enrollment growth for at least the next 10 years, Nowlin said.
Several of the ideas discussed by school board members to meet the system’s goals and growth requirements were:
- to move students in the current Smiths Station attendance area to either the Beulah or Beauregard zones;
- to create a fifth attendance zone northwest of the Smiths Station area, which would include a new high school;
- to build a new high school in the Smiths Station area for grades 10 through 12 and use the current high school for grades seventh through ninth.
These ideas - and combinations of these ideas together and with other options - were discussed at length by board members. The system currently has about $30 million to spend on construction projects, Nowlin said, noting that additional revenue might be secured from extra local revenue from retired debts and by possibly reducing expenditures.
The next step for the system will be to get estimates for possible projects, Nowlin said. In addition, Nowlin and Lee County Board of Education President Napoleon Stringer will narrow the list of options for the building program, based on Tuesday’s discussions, before the school board’s next regular meeting, Jan. 8, 2008.