The Starkville-Oktibbeha Consolidated School District board will soon begin a facilities study to determine upgrade needs at its campuses and whether to build a new high school.
In a special-call meeting Tuesday, the district’s board voted to borrow $1 million to hire an architect and fund the study.
“Part of this is looking at a serious study for a new high school,” Superintendent Tony McGee said. “Some of that will be … looking at the bones, the structure of (the current) building, the usability of that building; then also start looking at available space that the district may already have or may need to have in case we decide to build a new high school on a separate location.”
The board on June 29 approved a resolution of intent to borrow up to $87 million for improving or building school facilities. Board President Jamilla Taylor said the board can still borrow the rest later, but the $1 million is a starting point in the process.
The study, she said, should be finished later this year.
“We are just making sure that we’re utilizing those funds the way they are intended and not requesting too much money before we really know how much money is actually needed,” Taylor said.
McGee said the original portions of the SHS campus are more than 40 years old, though the building has been expanded along over that time.
The district also returned ninth-graders to SHS this year, moving them from Armstrong Junior High where they had been housed since 2020. That added 400 students to the facility.
“Currently, we have about 1,400 students at that school,” McGee said. “As we try to expand our college, career and readiness courses and … having more science and biology labs, that makes a new high school a focal point for us.”
The new $1 million bond will bring the district’s total outstanding bonded debt to $20,425,000.
McGee also said the public comment and petition period ended Tuesday as the meeting began. Since the resolution of intent accounts for up to $87 million, he said the board is not legally required to reopen the objection period when it votes to borrow more within that amount.
Taylor said that even though the board is not required to reopen that period to borrow more bond money, it will consider doing so if deemed necessary.
“We have got to make sure that we’re keeping the public involved and knowing what that money is for,” she said.
The bonds will be paid through ad valorem taxes, collected from real and personal property owned by Oktibbeha County residents.
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