Two of three major projects the system has under way now are new schools — the new Twin Oaks Elementary, which will be open for a community walk-through July 31, and Lee County High School Ninth-Grade Campus, being built in the former Twin Oaks building — Superintendent of Schools Larry Walters said.
“They tell us and they tell us, and they told us again that the (ninth-grade campus) building will be ready for us to have school,” Walters said, during a regular meeting of the board of education Monday.
With crews working 90-plus hours a week for the next three weeks, Phase 1 of construction at the ninth-grade campus will be completed, but five more phases of work remain: Awnings, lunchroom equipment upgrades, a new administration building, gymnasium improvements and new windows, he said.
The July 31 elementary school walk-through won’t include guided tours but will offer the community a glimpse of the new Twin Oaks, principal Jason Miller said.
At the ninth-grade campus, short-term offices are being set up for administration, principal Jamie Horne said.
The third project ongoing is a band room expansion at the high school.
The ninth-grade campus will have its own newspaper, with help from a grant — “a great honor,” Walters said — for start-up costs, obtained by teacher Coni Grebel.
In other business, the school board approved a new Positive Behavior Support Plan, to be implemented systemwide, with Lee as a pilot system.
“It’s an honor that we’ve been asked to support this,” Walters said.
The board also set its tax millage rate at 15.4 mills, after a third public hearing held at 4 p.m. Monday.
Few attended the first two hearings, board member Frank Griffin said, and no one attended the hearing Monday.
Board vice chair Robert Clay said he hoped the board would have compromised, on a millage rate of 15.1 mills.
The 15.4-mill rate marks an increase of Lee’s maintenance and operations millage rate from 13.75 to 15 mills, with a decrease in Lee’s debt service millage rate from 1 mill to .4 mills.
Board member Louis Hatcher said he supported the increase, but never House Speaker Glenn Richardson’s GREAT plan, which sought to exchange property tax revenues for sales taxes.
“Although I support the increase,” Hatcher said, “let there be no doubt in anyone’s mind that I detest Speaker Richardson’s attempt to take away local control.”