Board reiterates need for new high school

Published 11:12 pm Tuesday, August 5, 2008

Whitfield County Board of Education members say the new high school to be built near the Prater’s Mill historic site on Highway 2 is exactly where it needs to be, despite some vocal opposition and threats of legal action. Groundbreaking for the school was on Tuesday.

Board members cannot foresee what school numbers will be and what sources of revenue are going to provide three to five years down the road by “looking into a crystal ball,” chairman Tim Trew said Tuesday. But they are confident speculation about people leaving the county due to the economy — possibly making a new high school unnecessary — is unwarranted.

“The money for this high school is currently being collected,” Trew said. “The money is not set aside. The SPLOST (Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax) is a little down, but we were conservative when we budgeted that.”

Trew said no bids have been received on the high school’s construction. The projected cost is $51 million, said finance director Kenny Sheppard.

“Will we need another SPLOST? I don’t know,” Trew said. “But in 2006 the education SPLOST and debt instruments were approved by voters, and we set the course for what we’re going to do. We’ll have to have a new principal and new custodian, but we’ll move teachers because those students are already being taught.

“Now that’s an issue — who’ll go where?”

The education SPLOST passed in September 2006 was approved by 75 percent of those who voted. Seventy percent of the expected $115 million to be collected over five years is dedicated to Whitfield County Schools, while Dalton Public Schools will receive 30 percent.

Sheppard said as the project progresses, board members will “more than likely” issue bonds for construction.

“They’re authorized to issue up to $96.1 million in bonds,” he said, adding that besides the high school, other projects will also receive funds: $20.1 million for the new elementary school at Cedar Ridge, $10.3 million for new technology throughout the system, and $5 million for a gym at the Career Academy.

SPLOST monies will go toward paying back $68 million of the bond issuance. Would another SPLOST be necessary to pay for the high school’s completion?

“I can’t say now,” Sheppard replied. “The other (the $28.1 million difference between the $96.1 million in bonds and the $68 million to be paid back by the SPLOST) will be paid back with another SPLOST or by property taxes.”

Board member John Thomas said he is confident population growth will justify the new high school.

“Everyone has heard about the VW (Volkswagen) plant,” he said of the plant to be built in Chattanooga. “I think the city and county are going to be working together more closely, and we are going to get some spin-off business from that. Of course, that will bring more people to Whitfield County.

“You can’t just think about today. You’ve got to think five, 10, 15 years down the road. I see people beginning to work together. We are going to attract industry here, and we are going to attract families here to buy homes.”

Thomas said there are approximately 1,800 students at Northwest Whitfield High School, with 1,300 to 1,400 at Southeast High School. That will translate into 700-800 from Northwest and 400 or so from Southeast attending the new high school.

“It will bring (the numbers) down,” Thomas said. “I don’t know any exact numbers, but it would be very possible, probable I would say, that Northwest would become a 3-A school (in Georgia High School Association classifications).”

Vice chair Chuck Oliver views the enrollment numbers in a different light.

“Our graduation rate has increased 50 percent,” he pointed out. “It has gone from 49 percent to 73 percent in three years. That’s where some of our ‘overcrowding’ has come from. That’s a good thing. We have more kids in high school than we used to have simply because fewer of them are dropping out.”

Oliver discounted that students may leave the system in large numbers.

“We haven’t seen what the rumors are (saying), which is people leaving in mass numbers,” he said. “As a matter of fact, our numbers at the end of May were higher than they were from the previous May, maybe by a couple of hundred.

“I’ll also call attention to the fact that you have not seen massive layoffs in the carpet industry. They are running short time, short shifts and four-day weeks and things like that. But there have not been massive layoffs. We are weathering this slowdown pretty well.

“As far as prognosticating how many kids we’ll have in school next week, I don’t think anybody can do that. But you don’t build a school based on what you need today. If you did, you’d always be overcrowded. You build a school based on what your projected needs are going to be.”

Board member Gary Brock also mentioned the VW plant.

“People will be moving here,” he said. “Most of the residential growth (in the county) is on the north end, and we have to prepare for that.

“I think it’s a good location,” he said. “It will gets kids out of trailers — we have to look 20 years down the road.”

Board member Jerry Nealey did not immediately return phone calls left at his residence.



Staff writer Charles Oliver contributed to this report.