Iredell in Transition :: Powered by statesville.com and mooresvilletribune.com

Schools focus on education instead of construction

Bethany Fuller | .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) | Feb. 23, 2008

Iredell County commissioners let out a collective sigh of relief Friday after both local school districts indicated they planned to take a break from school construction.

Officials from Iredell-Statesville Schools and the Mooresville Graded School District focused their presentations to commissioners at the winter planning session on education, particularly technical and career tracks.

“It’s like Christmas,” said Commissioner Ken Robertson, recalling that during last year’s retreat school officials requested $100 million to pay for new high schools.

“It’s refreshing to have a conversation where it’s moved from bricks and mortar to the quality of education.”

Representatives from both school districts addressed next year’s funding stream and future expectations. County officials plan to earmark more than $73 million of Iredell’s $166.9 million 2008-09 budget for schools.

Part of the funding will be used for debt service on past construction projects, including the first payments on the upcoming $110 million Certificates of Participation sale.

I-SS Board Chairman Dr. David Cash said the district wants to wait a while before deciding which schools to include in the third phase of a major construction project.

“We know we have commitments in Cool Springs and Union Grove,” he said.

Cash said he knows there are more projects on the horizon, but district officials want to review their options.

I-SS Superintendent Terry Holliday said the school district is looking for the best way to use its facilities.

“Why would we think about three separate buildings than use one?” he said. “The more we can look at pulling those resources together the better.”

MGSD Superintendent Dr. Mark Edwards said the district’s facility capacity analysis revealed that once Mooresville Middle School moved into the intermediate school, the remaining building would be sufficient to meet the needs of the high school.

“I can tell you we believe we are going to be fine,” Edwards said. “Our board had the same reaction. I think one said an immediate blessing . ... We believe we can use the same footprint and still maintain that sense of focus to the community.”

He said he expects the school district to continue on the current 5 percent growth rate over the next 10 years.

Part of the plan calls for the current middle school to be transformed into a freshman academy for 700 to 900 students.

The high school and the old middle school will need some renovations in order to make it work. One step would involve re-emphasizing and step up the technical education programs, he said.

Instead of a food processing classes, the school district wants to offer culinary arts and rev up the automotive program to match what I-SS offers. Edwards said the district is talking to Lowe’s about coordinating a course on supply-chain economics.

Meanwhile, Mitchell Community College administrators updated the commissioners on MCC’s new Student Services Building.

MCC President Doug Eason said the project is expected to come in under budget. College officials want to use any leftover funding to build a new classroom building at the Mooresville location.

County Finance Director Susan Blumenstein said MCC is expected to receive 9.19 percent more from the county from one half of one-cent sales taxes collected. While a portion of the schools’ budget includes interest payments for past COPs sales, MCC only has the interest from the debt from the General Obligation bonds approved in 2005.

Eason also emphasized the importance of a continued partnership between the college and the two public school districts.

“We are seeing a lot of activities from the public schools,” he said. “We’ve got to come up with plans to implement or expand programs.”

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