The Bryan County Board of Education talked capital projects at a called meeting prior to Thursday’s regular session.
Associate Superintendent John Oliver and Melanie James, the BoE finance director, provided the review.
James gave a summary of the capital outlay of funding sources for the past five fiscal years.
"As we’ve talked about several times, the growth has been fairly exceptional for FY ’07," James said. "Between FY ’06 and FY ’07, we increased our revenue by about 19.8 percent. So we have projected that we would increase beyond FY ’07 numbers to FY ’08 about 15 percent. So our projected next year revenue is about $4.5 million, which would give us total SPLOST proceeds for SPLOST II of $18.3 million."
With the revenue for the upcoming fiscal year estimated to be about $15 million, "that’ll give us a total for local and SPLOST for $53.6 million," James said of the projected total available funds by the end of 2008.
Oliver went down the list of capital outlay projects, discussing projects that have been completed, are under contract, and are in the planning stages. Current projects that are in planning stages included Lanier Primary School’s addition and renovation; Richmond Hill Middle School’s A/C in the gym, main parking lot resurface, and new athletic fields; and Bryan County High School’s HVAC replacement, greenhouse, and student parking lot resurface, among several others. The total projected cost for all capital projects – both current, in planning, or under contract – is $79.7 million, with available funds currently at $26 million.
Once the regular meeting was called to order, Superintendent Dr. Sallie Brewer handed out some awards during her "Good News About Bryan County Schools" summary. Honored first was Dr. Emory Warnock, music teacher at RHMS, for his study and publication of Henry Ford music in Richmond Hill.
"Congratulations for publication of ‘Henry Ford and Arts Education in Georgia,’ which was recently published in the spring 2007 edition of Georgia Music News," Brewer said.
Next up to receive his award was BCHS student D.J. McElroy, honored for his achievements in Track and Field.
"Hard work pays off," McElroy said when he accepted the award.
Principal Harold Roach was there and said he was going to "brag on him" a little bit.
"One of the greatest gifts D.J. has is his leadership," Roach said. "He is so humble about everything he does. His family is such a large part of his life, his faith, and it shows all the time. I am so proud that he’s in our school. His athletics speak for themselves, but what he gets from his family and his faith, it shows even more, and…I’m so happy he’s a student at BCHS."
In other business:
- The board’s Policy Manual had its second reading for all policies, and was approved unanimously.
- The board unanimously approved the SPLOST resolution.
"What we have to do is provide a resolution that will be put on the ballot for the voters to make their choices as to whether they want to approve the SPLOST or not," said Chairman Eddie Warren.
The resolution was unanimously approved
- The board came to a decision on what size classes will be limited to. "In the law, it says our local board must pass a resolution describing how we’re going to determine class sizes," Brewer said. "Basically, we’re saying 32, we’re going by the state chart…this meets the level of what they require." Oliver also spoke up, noting that the only real change from last year "will be that we may have up to 32 students in a high school science lab.
"That maximum class size had been 28, with other academic courses already being 32," he said.
The number should accommodate growth for the schools, with the hope being that no current classes will be filled to capacity.