Johnson gave an update on Gov. Riley’s visit during a recent meeting of the Cherokee County Board of Education. Riley toured Centre Middle School as part of his proposed $500 million capital improvement plan and discovered there are many needs at CMS.
“We’ve had some bad luck about coordinating Gov. Riley’s visit,” said Johnson. “He made two attempts to come and he was finally able to come yesterday. The weather wasn’t great, but he did make a visit to Centre Middle School. He probably spent an hour or an hour and a half with us. We walked through the school and looked at some areas of the school that need improvement. The governor was very complimentary of the administration and staff at the school. He commented several times that the building is old and substandard, but what a good job everyone is doing taking care of it. We have some dedicated employees going above and beyond the call of duty.”
According to Johnson, “We have some floors that are given away and ironically enough, yesterday, the heat wasn’t working, some classrooms were cold, so the governor got first hand experience of what we deal with on a daily basis. The old boiler system just doesn’t work that well.”
According to Gov. Riley’s plan, Johnson said, Cherokee County’s share of the capital improvement funds would be approximately $1.4 million.
“That is just a drop in the bucket to what we need but it is a start,” said Johnson. “I trust that the leaders in Montgomery will look at our budget and see how much money we have and spread it out where it is needed across the board.”
On the subject of construction, the board discussed the possibility of clearing timber on lands owned by the Cherokee County Board of Education and putting the proceeds from the sale of the timber into a special fund for Cherokee County Schools which are attached to that particular land. For example, the board owns one tract of land on Highway 411, across from the Cherokee County Highway Department, proceeds of which could go into a fund for construction of a new Centre Middle School building. The board owns another tract of timber land across from the Cherokee County High School Football Stadium. The board will also investigate land in other areas which might possibly benefit other schools.
The board, Johnson said, said the land would have to be protected if there was a cemetery or other historical landmark on the property.
On another construction matter, the board approved a matching fund grant for Cherokee County Career and Technology Center for renovation of a classroom to begin a new tech program.
Johnson also updated the board on the Centre Middle School roofing project. In a previous work session, Johnson and the board met with architects and expressed their displeasure that this issue has not been resolved. After the architects officially signed off on the project, there was still a visible ridging effect in the roof which is still present today. The architects claimed this problem was caused by lack of proper ventilation.
From his latest conversation with the architects, Johnson said they are looking at some type of fans to improve the ventilation so the roof will lay down.
Johnson said he felt confident that the state architect would side with the board on this issue
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