By Charlotte Smith
Bladen County Board of Education met virtually on Monday evening, November 9, 2020. An application for a new facility in Tar Heel, employee bonuses, personnel matters, and emergency facility repairs were all voted on during the meeting.
Dr. Robert Taylor explained the district’s desire to submit a funding application for new school construction because it continues to be available. The application is due on December 4, 2020.
Dr. Taylor said, “We will be requesting the three-to-one match of 15 million dollars, and that means that Bladen County will be responsible for providing at least five million dollars in order to get this three-to-one match because we are a tier one county, we are eligible for what they call a three-to-one match up to 15 million dollars.”
The new school would be for a Kindergarten through 8th grade and would be in Tar Heel to house the students currently attending Plainview Primary School and Tar Heel Middle School.
Dr. Taylor explained the estimated cost of construction to be approximately 22 million dollars. He also stated, “With this particular application we do want to remind the community and the board that the lottery proceeds would be surrendered for five years and after the first dispersal of the funding amount.”
According to Dr. Taylor, Bladen County Schools receive about 200,000 dollars a year in lottery funding. Those funds would be forfeited for the next five years in order to receive the three-to-one match.
According to Dr. Taylor’s report, the application will seek funds for a building that will house up to 750 students, but it will start out serving approximately 550 students.
“This is the enrollment between Tar Heel Middle School and Plainview Primary,” Dr. Taylor stated, “If approved, the project would be bid in the spring of 2021 with a construction date in the fall of 2021.”
Construction could take anywhere from 18 to 24 months.
Board member Gary Rhoda mentioned problems at Bladenboro Middle School with mold and other facility issues during the item discussion.
Dr. Taylor said, “One of the things we have looked at are the capital needs throughout the district, and while mold is not an issue at Bladenboro Middle School, the need to upgrade that building is a need to be met.”
Dr. Taylor explained goals to update Bladenboro Middle is something they can do in conjunction with the new facility in Tar Heel because funding for upgrades would be available. Dr. Taylor added when the high school debt is met in 2021, and the district will have approximately 900,000 dollars that will be available for capital outlay projects. Those funds could be used to build three multi-purpose buildings and other capital outlay projects, such as the needs at Bladenboro Middle, according to Dr. Taylor.
Board member Vinston Rozier stated, “It would be cost-effective to build a school building in Tar Heel based on the growth, and Tar Heel, and Plainview has not had any construction on anything new since 1952.”
He added, “If we build on that land, we won’t have to spend any more money on additional land, and I believe, if we build, they will come.”
Board member Dennis Edwards made a motion for the application, and board member Rozier seconded the motion. The motion passed with board members Chris Clark, Dennis Edwards, Vinston Rozier, Cory Singletary, Alan West, Glenn McKoy, and Roger Carroll voting for the application and board member Gary Rhoda voting against the application.
Next, Dr. Taylor presented three options to provide a COVID-19 stipend (or bonus) to Bladen County Schools employees. He explained, there have been 364,000 dollars budgeted for the bonus funding necessaries. School administrators could receive a $1000 stipend, and that would be all principals and everyone who works at the central office. Dr. Taylor said, “I have seven staff members who have put in additional work, and we ask they be compensated with an additional $1000.” (The seven staff members, Dr. Taylor, referred to putting in additional work are district office administrators.)
He continued, the certified and classified staff, which include bus drivers, would receive $350 each. Bus drivers and staff members who are not qualified for the $350 bonus would receive a stipend of $100. That amount would come to 255,000 dollars before taxes. The total after taxes would be 328,000 dollars.
Option two would be school administrators receive $750, and all other staff receiving $250 in extra pay. Option three would be school administrators receive $500, and all other staff members receive $150 in bonus funding. Each of the three options would give the seven employees, Dr. Taylor mentioned having additional work, an extra $1000 bonus.
Dr. Taylor asked the board to approve all three options, allowing the district office to distribute the bonuses as funding was available and not needed for other expenditures.
Bladen County Schools have received approximately 1.5 million dollars for COVID-19 expenditures and received other funding amounts to help with needs due to the pandemic. The bonuses in the options presented by Dr. Taylor would be taken out of those COVID-19 funds already received by Bladen County Schools. Dr. Taylor also said another round of COVID-19 funding is expected to be received in the spring.
There was much debate about the central office employees receiving more bonus funding than other employees.
Five of the seven central office administrators Dr. Taylor mentioned receiving the proposed extra $1,000 bonus he named. They are Mrs. Amy Stanley, Dr. Robert Heavenridge, Dr. Antonia Beatty, Ms. Ann Brown, and Ms. Valerie Newton.
Board member Gary Rhoda said during the debate about the bonus money, “The point I’m trying to make is the central office staff’s salary is probably 80 or 90 thousand dollars a year verses, 12 and 25, during a Pandemic. I don’t know what everybody needs, but I would assume those people making 12 to 25 thousand dollars need it more than ones making 80 and 90 thousand in that central office.”
Board member Dennis Edwards made a motion to divide the total funds available for stipend (or bonus) equally to all employees. Board member Chris Clark seconded the motion.
Board member Alan West explained he thought it would be better to give everybody a $500 bonus because the amount budgeted would only give employees $362 before taxes.
Dr. Taylor noted that to give everybody a $500 bonus, the funding would be at 350,000 dollars before the benefits are factored in. Also, Dr. Taylor announced, teachers received a $350 bonus in October and will get a supplement in November that other employees will not receive in addition to the bonus up for vote.
Board Chairperson Roger Carroll asked Mr. Edwards and Mr. Clark to amend their motion to include Dr. Taylor to receive the bonus as well. Mr. Edwards and Mr. Clark agreed to include Dr. Taylor on the bonus distribution.
All board members, Clark, Edwards, Rhoda, Rozier, Singletary, West, McKoy, and Carroll voted to approve the motion to distribute the budgeted bonus amount of $362 equally to all Bladen County Schools employees.
Next, the board heard emergency maintenance requests given by director Rusty Worley. The two projects include replacing the Elizabethtown Middle School roof during Christmas and replacing an HVAC unit at Plainview Primary as soon as possible.
Board member Cory Singletary asked when the roof at Elizabethtown Primary was last replaced. The roof was replaced around 2015 for 42,000 dollars, according to Dr. Taylor.
“There was no warranty on the roof. We did not know that until after the fact,” Dr. Taylor said.
Board member Singletary explained a warranty needs to be in all the new contracts.
Board member Rhoda asked how much the roof was going to cost. Mr. Worley said the new roof would cost about $58,000.
Board member Alan West and made a motion to approve the two emergency maintenance requests. The board approved the motion unanimously.
The board then went into closed session with Dr. Beatty for the purpose of discussing personnel, as per NCGS 143.318.11, (a) (1),to consult with an attorney, if needed, as per NCGS 143.318.11 (a) (3), and to discuss student reassignment/discipline, per the 1974 Family Rights and Privacy Act.
The board reconvened after the closed session and approved the Certified / Classified Personnel action item presented by Dr. Beatty. No discussion about what the action item included was mentioned.
Bladen County Board of Education member Berry Lewis was not present at the meeting. The next regular scheduled Board of Education meeting will be held on December 14, 2020.
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