Report details school needs

The members of the Alleghany County Board of Education discussed facility needs during its January meeting as Superintendent Jeff Cox covered a report he planned to submit to the Department of Public Instruction by a Jan. 17 deadline. All school systems across the state were scheduled to turn in a report covering the next 10 years concerning their needs.

“The state asks you to look at 10 years, but the report is updated every five years,” said Cox in an interview on Tuesday.

The Alleghany County Board of Commissioners has also requested a copy of the report to use in working with the schools for facility planning purposes. School officials are officially expected to present the document to the commission on Jan. 23 at 10 a.m. during the regularly scheduled county meeting.

The plan for school facility needs shows a total of $18,028,424, but the superintendent said some of the figures are misleading because a portion of the expenses would not be incurred if a new middle school is built. Specifically, Cox noted Tuesday that, due to the middle school variable, some facilities are counted twice in the report and thus the numbers “do not reflect a legitimate price estimate.” Other costs in the report are included in a contract with Ameresco, a Charlotte-based energy-savings company that has contracted with the school system to make upgrades at all facilities. Those upgrades are being funded through actual energy savings and thus could further artificially inflate the numbers. He also noted that the construction figures and other numbers in the report are intended to serve only as a rough estimate for state planning purposes.

“We have identified many of our facility plans, but we haven’t gone through the process of prioritizing the facility projects and developing a long-range plan,” Cox noted.

The projected cost of a new middle school is on the report at $8,155,664 for the building and another $753,021 for furnishings and equipment for a total of $8,908,685 — roughly half of the projected needs. That building will have the capability to house up to 420 students, projections show.

Meanwhile, other schools showing vastly varying expenditures, from a low of $205,200 at Alleghany High School to a high of $5,410,372 at Sparta Elementary School. The AHS expenses would cover renovations there to the bleachers in the old gymnasium, at a cost of $90,000 and air conditioning upgrades, also slated to cost $90,000.

Sparta’s allocation includes $1,778,412 for the planned new addition, $149,260 for furniture and equipment, and $3,482,700 for other renovations.

According to specifics in the report, Sparta needs five middle school classrooms for math and science, a new exceptional children’s room and a new computer room. Other needs there include a new prevocational lab, all of which totals $1,195,100, with an additional $392,768 for building support/circulation needs for a total of $1,778,412 when contingency and design costs ($71,454 and $119,090, respectively) are included.

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