The Columbus Municipal School District board has whittled its highest priorities for facility upgrades to $38.8 million, still a bit rich for the bond issue it hopes voters will approve in May.
After a work session Monday, board members continued to cut what once was a list of $96 million in needed facility spending to get closer to the $30 million or so the district can afford. The most updated list still includes work at all campuses except Union, McKellar and Brandon Central Services.
In December, the board commissioned the PryorMorrow architectural firm to conduct a district wide facilities study that identified needed improvements. Board President Telisa Young told The Dispatch in February the board would seek to borrow about $30 million to avoid increasing the current tax rate. A new bond, however, would recommit as many as 11.85 debt mills, scheduled to expire from the tax rolls in April, that were issued in 2009 to build Columbus Middle School.
The bond, which would go before voters in May, would require 60-percent approval. However, the board has not yet approved the bond resolution required to place the measure on the ballot.
“I feel confident,” Superintendent Stanley Ellis told The Dispatch after the meeting Monday. “I think we’re in a good place. Over the past couple of weeks, we’ve been working to work within … the confines that we have. We’ve spoken with the (Chief Financial Officer) Holly Rogers, and we’re confident that we’re moving in the right direction.”
Ellis said the intent is to spread the $30 million to meet the needs of as many campuses as possible, rather than focusing on only a few campuses.
“The goal is to focus on all campuses,” he said. “… Some campuses have more needs than others, and so at that point we have to prioritize to see what the greatest need is.”
The $38.8 million figure includes as much $7 million in various engineering and contingency fees.
The board will meet again at 6 p.m. Thursday at Brandon Central Services.
Franklin, CHS, athletics
Franklin Academy, along with Columbus High School and the CHS Athletic Complex, are the three most expensive facilities in terms of needed improvements identified by the study.
“Of course, when you have a school like Franklin — it’s a historic site — that number is astronomical,” Ellis said. “The high school is a large building, and there are some needs there. So we’re working to kind of prioritize the needs at those particular schools. At our newer schools like the middle school and Stokes Beard, we didn’t have to do a lot there because those are relatively new buildings.”
Franklin Academy was established in 1821 as the first free public school in the state. The study indicated $18.3 million in improvements at Franklin due to the building’s age. The board elected to postpone all but two of the items, planning to seek additional funding from the Mississippi Department of Archives and History to address them later. The updated list for Franklin Academy includes immediate life safety measures — like fire alarms, intercoms, cameras and doors — and exterior wall restorations for $3.5 million.
Columbus High School started with $20.4 million in suggested improvements. The board has since narrowed that number down to around $8.6 million. The remaining priorities for the high school include immediate life safety measures, fire protection, parking repair and overlay, building a new secured entrance and renovating the auditorium.
The high school athletic complex started with 15 items of improvement totaling $12.8 million. The board has cut the list to five items totaling around $7.6 million, including the field house restoration, parking lot repair between the football and baseball fields, a complete replacement of the large parking lot, a restroom addition at the batting cages and the field house addition.
When deciding whether to keep resurfacing the track as a priority, board member Robert Smith implored the board to consider how important the field house improvements are with football being the main revenue source for athletics.
“With the athletics program, what’s your money maker? Football,” he said. “So that’s why from the field house standpoint, that’s something we need to think about seriously as a board. Track doesn’t bring as much money in, very little.”
Remaining priorities
At Cook Elementary the board has cut the list of improvements at Cook from 12 items to four items costing $4.8 million in total. The prioritized improvements include restroom renovations for accessibility and parking lot repair.
Sale Elementary, which was originally built in 1968, is still slated for roughly $4 million. The largest expense would be replacing the roof for $1.4 million, though to cut some costs, the board could decide to repair the roof and replace it later.
Other suggested improvements at Sale include renovating restrooms for accessibility and updating air conditioning, heating and ventilation.
Upgrade costs at Cook and Sale also include increased fire protection and safety measures.
Stokes Beard Elementary and Columbus Middle School are the district’s newest buildings, built in 2003 and 2011 respectively, so the board is prioritizing only one immediate need at each school. Stokes Beard would require $222,000 to redo the fencing behind the school. Columbus Middle would require around $132,000 for repair work and regrading on the playground.
Fairview Elementary School started with $6 million in suggested improvements before the board cut that to about $491,000. The board eliminated several items expecting that some updates could be handled by the district’s maintenance department. The only improvement the board is currently prioritizing at Fairview is immediate life safety measures.
The feasibility study indicated three items of focus at Hunt Intermediate Academy, which has been under construction since June 2023 after being damaged by an EF-3 tornado in 2019. If the board continues to prioritize the three improvements — new fencing, new cameras and updated parking — the campus will cost the district roughly $1 million. Federal and state disaster reimbursements, along with an insurance settlement, is paying for the majority of the Hunt rebuild, estimated at $16.5 million.
McRae is a general assignment and education reporter for The Dispatch.
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