In a pair of actions that one school board member said shows that the needs of the Highlands community do not matter, the Macon County Board of Commissioners and the Macon County Board of Education both voted to stop the Highlands School Pre-K project.
The unanimous commissioners’ vote on Feb. 21 and a 3-2 vote by the school board on Feb. 27 halts the work of LS3P that was in the process of developing a full plan at Highlands to renovate two classrooms for a new Pre-K space, renovate the media center, STEM space, a project-based learning space and add four classrooms.
On Feb. 21, Board of Commissioners Chair Paul Higdon said the vote for termination came after a recommendation from the liaison committee meeting on Feb. 9, when two school board members and two commissioners met. Since it’s only two members from each board, the meetings are not bound to N.C. Open Meetings law.
County Manager Derek Roland said his office looked at the school board’s capital priority list for the 2023-24 school year and that the liaison committee narrowed the recommendations down to five priorities. Those five being the Macon Middle School vent pipes, Nantahala wastewater treatment plant, the new Franklin High School project, the Highlands Middle School renovation project and the Macon Middle School track project.
“In acknowledging these priorities, we must acknowledge that the Highlands Pre-K project did not make that priority list, so with that being said, it will require us to take action to terminate this contract for architecture services,” Roland said.
The $329,255 architectural contract was approved in November by a 3-2 vote (Higdon and Commissioner Josh Young voted against while then-Board Chair Jim Tate, then-Commissioner Ronnie Beale and Commissioner Gary Shields voted in favor). Roland said the county has spent $35,262 so far and does have a schematic design from LS3P in case the county wants to move forward in the future.
Commissioner Josh Young said that while the Highlands Pre-K project is worthy and needed, there are more pressing priorities for MCS.
“I think at this point and time, we have items that have been on this capital outlay request for a period of 10-plus years,” Young said. “I think at this point, this is more of just a prioritization. I think there’s a start to this set of plans and we can pick up where we left off when our capital improvement allows.”
Finance Officer Lori Hall said she can prepare a budget amendment for the next commissioners meeting to revert the remaining $293,993, originally appropriated to the project out of fund balance, back into the fund balance.
The contract termination was contingent on the school board approving the same at its Feb. 27 meeting. School board chair Jim Breedlove and Wilkes were present at the Feb. 21 meeting.
Breedlove said the school board will not be removing the Highlands Pre-K project from their capital outlay request.
“We think it’s a very important project, I think it provides very needed services to the town of Highlands,” Breedlove said. “It was behind the [Franklin] high school and a couple others, but by no means have we let up. We will continue to support the request.”
Wilkes spoke against possibly taking funding away from the project line item, saying it would be a shame and said she’s put a lot of personal time into this over the last two years.
“I’ve spoken with most of you, you know the need. We’ve got 60 families on waitlist in Highlands for Pre-K and daycare,” Wilkes said to the board. “It’s disappointing, I’m disappointed that this is even on the table when LS3P has put in lots of work and they’re coming to the conclusion of their work. They’re supposed to be putting this out to bid March 1.”
Wilkes said that with the Highlands Middle School project going forward this year, it doesn’t make sense to do both the middle school and Pre-K projects separately, saying it would save money to do both together.
“The price tag, in my opinion, it’s a deal. It’s $4.7 million, changes the face of our community and invests in our students,” Wilkes said. “I don’t want to use the word ‘offended,’ but I’m disappointed, I think we should be doing better for our students.”
At the end of the Feb. 21 discussion, Higdon spoke about the flaw in the liaison meeting process where he didn’t know about some of the decisions made by those boards until he shows up at the monthly commissioners meetings. Higdon said he would like a brief liaison update in future board meeting packets. Young suggested someone take notes in those meetings like a secretary to be presented to the board and the public.
Feb. 27 school board vote
The Feb. 21 commissioners’ vote was contingent on the school board voting Monday to follow suit. On Feb. 27, Breedlove called for a motion to accept the county commissioners’ decision in respect to the Highlands Pre-K project.
Breedlove and Wilkes both started out by saying they’ve been trying to re-phrase this as the “Highlands School Project,” combining the Pre-K and Middle School projects, the latter of which is still going forward.
After a motion by Melissa Evans and a second by Diedre Breeden, Wilkes read a prepared statement where she sought to “get the facts straight” regarding the Pre-K project.
Wilkes noted that in December’s joint meeting between the school board and commissioners, there was a motion to pause the contract with LS3P, which did not carry due to a lack of a second.
Wilkes feels like the school board’s capital project list has been used against them, despite the Highlands project being ranked No. 2, after No. 1 FHS and two emergency projects involving the vent pipes at MMS and the wastewater project at Nantahala School.
The Feb. 9 liaison committee meeting, Wilkes said, has been misinterpreted, saying that “at no time was the list of capital improvement priorities amended by the school board meetings or any school board meetings since then.”
“The commissioners have repeatedly used language in their meetings and to constituents that this project was taken off the table or re-prioritized by the school board, which is false,” Wilkes said. “Their action to terminate the work by LS3P is unnecessary and egregious. This expense was already in the budget and work was in process. The idea that there is no need to complete this work without a funding strategy for this project in place is false, as we’re following a typical timeline for capital projects.”
Wilkes said Phase One is near completion, with two additional phases to be done before bids are sent out and that all three phases are relevant and viable to the project.
“Choosing to stop at this point only serves to significantly lengthen the timeline for the project and raise the cost in the long run,” Wilkes continued. “Their actions last week were intended to defund and indefinitely delay the project. There is no good reason to take away funds that are already committed to Highlands School. Not only is this bad business where LS3P is concerned, but it sends the message that the prioritized needs of Macon County Schools do not matter. And finally, it sends the message that the urgent needs of Highlands School, our students and our community are so unimportant to the commissioners, including to the representative of our own district, that they’ll go in the extreme direction of divesting previously appropriated funds for this project and suspending any progress for this critical work.”
Wilkes said as far as the two boards working together, “this is a step in the opposite direction,” but remains hopeful of still working together in the future.
The only other thoughts given by the rest of the board after Wilkes’ speech was by Stephanie Laseter, who wanted clarification about what the motion on the table was about. Breedlove stated that despite the vote, the Pre-K project is still a priority of the school board.
The motion to accept the Board of Commissioners recommendation passed 3-2 with Breedlove, Evans and Breeden voting in favor, and Wilkes and Laseter opposed.
Upcoming meetings
The Board of Education will hold a budget work session at 8:30 a.m. on Tuesday, March 14 at the Central Office.
The next Board of Education meeting will be at 6 p.m. Monday, March 27 at the Central Office, not in Highlands as originally planned. The April 24 meeting will be held at Highlands School.