Funds Available for 2nd Easley Middle School?

Can the School District of Pickens County afford to provide two middle schools in Easley?

That’s been the subject of much discussion following a decision by board members to abandon plans to renovate Gettys Middle School, which, combined with the conversion of the former Easley High School site to Brice Middle School, would give Easley two middle schools.

District officials have said there is not enough money in the building program to renovate Gettys as planned, hence the need to scale back the program and focus on only one Easley middle school.

That decision has met with opposition from Easley leaders and residents, who say housing nearly 1,400 students in a building being renovated for only 700 students does not make sense.

More than 180 people gathered at Easley High School Tuesday to discuss the board’s action and to see what could be done.

Board chairman Judy Edwards said that while many believe the district has $9.3 million remaining in its building fund that could be used to renovate Gettys, that’s not the case.

Edwards said she feels the board will have to accept some of the blame that the district’s building program is short on funds.

“We had a person who was over the building and at every meeting when we got a report and were told we’re on time and in budget,” Edwards said.

Board members were told about the progress of each school in the plan as the building program drew nearer to completion, she said.

“We did not ask for figures – and we should have,” Edwards said. “We did not see the figures laid out in front of us. We accepted that we were on time and in budget. When we got to the end, we found we were not in budget.”

She said she believed part of the problem was building program director Bob Folkman assumed money generated from interests would be there at the program’s end, but the board approved using that money in another way.

“Last money, we said we had $9.3 million left,” Edwards said. “We don’t.” 

She said the building program manager had assumed some bills had been paid when that wasn’t the case. Based on that assumption, he used those allocated funds elsewhere in the building program.

“That money was spent twice,” Edwards said. “We are still trying to get bills in. Dr. Pew has insisted that all bills be brought in. We don’t have $9.3 million left. How much we have left, we don’t know.”

She said she hoped the board would learn how much was left in the building fund account at the board’s June meeting Monday night.

“Is there enough with that and the interest money to do the two schools?” Edwards said. “I don’t know at this point. Possibly; possibly not.”    

But Kevin Kay, a former board member, said there is another source of funding that could be used for the Gettys renovation, allowing for two middle schools in Easley.

That potential funding source is the interest money Edwards referred to earlier, funds that board members voted to return to the taxpayers.

“There’s another $9.3 million sitting there that people aren’t focusing on,” Kay said.

He said since the building program’s beginning, $55, 784,000 in interest has been generated.

Of that, $46,442,000 has been spent on other projects in the district, Kay said.

“There’s $9.3 million left,” Kay said. “Why can’t that be spent in Easley, to give us two schools.”

Former EHS principal Bill Houston said a board member wants that money to be returned to the taxpayers.

“I think that would be about a $60-70 rebate for each taxpayer,” Houston said.

Kay said he’d discussed the potential taxpayer refund with County Auditor Brent Sudduth.

The refund, if given, would come to taxpayers as a one-time reduction in taxes

“It’s not like it would come to you in a check,” Kay said.

Edwards said taxpayers would not receive the refund at the end of the building program three years from now, as many believe.

“It would come when the building program is paid off, 20 years from now,” she said.

“In 2032, the owner of a $150,000 house would get a $132 reduction on the tax bill – one time,” Kay said. “Yet if we don’t get two schools of out this, in five years, ten years, 15 years, we’ll be building a second middle school in Easley. That second middle schools, based on today’s dollars, will cost you $25-$30 million, in today money. We need to pressure the board and the legislative delegation to give us the schools that we were promised.”   

Mayor Larry Bagwell asked Edwards why the board had been secretive about planned vote on the Easley middle school issue.

She said the board had not intended to be secretive, but had decided to not discuss the issue publicly until board members had all met with Dr. Pew to discuss the issue.

One member could not meet with the superintendent until the morning of the May 28 meeting.

“We were not going to discuss it until all board members had been informed of the figures,” Edwards said. “We didn’t want the public to know until the board members knew what the figures were.”

She said a public meeting was planned after the May 28 meeting, but a majority of the members decided to vote on the issue that night.