The Lumpkin County Board of Education has authorized a laundry list of school system projects totaling $6,197,584 in combined spending over the past two months. However a number of the expenditures, which consist of a wide range of ongoing construction projects and technology upgrades, will be reimbursed in whole or in part through state and federal grants.
The first raft of spending items consisted of needed technology upgrades for the school system. Director of Technology Sean Mullins explained the necessary projects to the Board at last month's work session.
Item one was a proposal to complete the other half of a faculty device refresh that began last year with Apple computers, at a cost of $104,860.
“It’s a fortuitous time. Apple is right now running a promotion, and the same allotment of devices this year is going to cost us 15 percent less, so about $18,000 cheaper, to complete the refresh. And that will have us good on faculty devices for another five and a half years,” Mullins said.
Item two on the technology list was a plan to complete an upgrade to interactive panels in every classroom at a cost of $76,851.
“Over the last three and a half years we’ve been kind of been piecemeal getting those old projectors out and putting interactive panels in every classroom. We’re down to what I believe is the last 18. They’ll all be going to Blackburn [Elementary], and then we’re going to take the ones at Lumpkin Elementary and when they shut down we’re going to move those to Long Branch to finish up Long Branch,” Mullins stated.
The third and fourth items involved procuring and maintaining new Chromebooks.
“Every year we replace about one fifth of our devices, so we’re kind of on that five-year plan. This year, we’ve been very fortunate again. We’ve got some FCC ECF [Emergency Connectivity] funds that will pay for all the devices this year. But we do have to pay for them, and then we’ll get reimbursed,” Mullins said.
However, he noted that the management system and white glove service package for the new devices would not be covered by grant money, and would have to be paid out of pocket at a cost of $34,030 to the school system.
PUTTING IN THE FLOOR
At the same work session, Assistant Superintendent Sharon Head reviewed planned spending on system-wide flooring and carpeting upgrades. This included $48,445 of spending on the Lumpkin County Middle School band rooms and chorus rooms, $29,907 on the Long Branch Elementary media center and $86,153 on portions of the old Lumpkin County Elementary School.
“We talked at our March planning session about possible uses for that [LCES] building going forward … so the quote that you see there would cover the media center, which we have talked about turning into a type of professional learning space for our teachers. We often find ourselves in need of a large space when we do professional learning with teachers. And then, also the cafeteria, we have talked about being able to host events in that. It’s a nice facility, a nice space with the stage. And the third thing it would be is the wing we use for Summit [Academy], what is currently Kindergarten Hall … we would be replacing that flooring, too,” Head stated.
CONSTRUCTION COSTS
The largest single expenditure authorized in the two monthly sessions was the Guaranteed Maximum Price for the new College and Career Academy at $3,571,249.
However that project also benefits from the largest government grant of the bunch.
“It’s just a very expensive time to build,” explained Lumpkin County School Superintendent Dr. Rob Brown. “And we knew that going in, but that $3.1 million dollar grant sure makes it a whole lot easier to approve a three and-a-half million dollar project, when you know most of that’s coming from the state,” he said.
Another item approved by the board was $57,300 in new shelving for LCMS. “We’re upgrading the Middle School library shelving, trying to bring that space into this century. And new shelves will do that for us, I’m sure,” Brown said.
The board also gave the green light for a new student and faculty Health Care Clinic with a price tag of $49,684.
“We did receive a $50,000 grant from the state, so all of that project [is covered]. And that would be to renovate the current Lumpkin County Elementary School office space into being a school-based health clinic. And that would be operated under the direction of Georgia Mountain Health,” Brown explained.
Next up was the approval of window safety film with a maximum purchase price of $250,000; that project will also be funded by a state grant.
“If you paid attention to the legislation this spring, Governor Kemp has allocated $50,000 per school to upgrade safety. There’s a lot of local flexibility with how to utilize those funds. We are in the process of getting quotes to put a product like a window tint that goes on your windows that makes them very bullet resistant. I’ve seen several demonstrations done on this type of product that would make it difficult for someone, even with a rifle, to penetrate a place like we saw in Nashville a couple months ago, where the intruder simply shot out the glass door and walked right in. So this particular application keeps that from happening,” Brown said.
The school board voted to approve a bid to resurface the LCHS track at a cost ranging from $398,081 up to a maximum price of $604,784, depending on the condition of the underlying asphalt subsurface. The board authorized a digital LED sign for Cottrell Elementary School at a cost of $64,431; the single-sided sign will feature a 6’ by 12’ viewing area inside of a larger mason work frame. The board also ratified the purchase of 3,865 new books for the Cottrell Elementary library collection at a total cost of $72,185.
EXPANDING THE FLEET
Finally, the board approved the purchase of seven new diesel-powered school buses at a total cost of $922,775, with grants expected to cover approximately $616,000 of that price.
“The price on these buses does include everything we’ve been doing to all of our buses, which is the camera system, the air conditioning, the radio systems. It’s fully outfitted. The state essentially pays $88,000 per bus. So what we add on to it from there is our cost,” Brown indicated.