The News Is Good, Financially Speaking, From Wheeler Schools
Wheeler County Schools Superintendent Suzanne Couey reported that the school system’s current funds from property taxes, SPLOST funds (special-purpose local-option sales tax), and TAVT funds (title ad valorem tax) are higher than they were projected to be. Financially, this is true for Wheeler County School System’s funds as a whole. Between wise money management prior to and since the federally granted money through the CARES Act (Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security), the school system is in good shape to pay off the debt that will be acquired with the construction of the new school.
In its May 5 session, the School Board discussed current Capital Outlay Funds of $500,000 set aside in a CD for a year for future pre-payment toward the new school. “What we plan to do is utilize [CARES] money where we can for things we usually pay for with general fund money, which would allow us to build reserves in the general fund to set aside more funds continued from page
toward capital outlay,” Couey stated. “We’ve decided we want to [set aside] $250,000 quarterly next year, so that by the end of the year, we will have set aside $1 million additional dollars to the capital outlay fund…By the end of this year, we will have $700,000 in that account.” The Board will approve this monetary designation on a quarterly basis. “We can’t make extra payments on the bonds we sold to build the new school until 2030,” Couey explained. “So we are setting aside funds each year to apply to payments as soon as we are able to in order to reduce debt. We had said that we would set aside $100,000 a year, but we have been able to do more than that.”
Board members spent some of this well-managed money in Monday’s meeting. They approved the construction of a fence around the Agriculture Facility as well as the installation of a new well for the building. A new score board for the football field will be purchased, since the current one has been malfunctioning for a while. The Board also approved the purchase of specific instruments for the school’s band program.
The state of Georgia is going to reimburse the school system for two new school buses for the 20212022 school year. The total cost of these buses will be $184,866 and the state will pay $154,440 of that total. The school will cover the remaining cost with SPLOST funds.
“As far as construction on the new school goes, they’re supposed to pour the slabs for buildings one and four tonight,” Couey reported. The construction team has divided the building up into six sections and plan to pour two concrete slabs at a time. “I’m excited to see something above ground,” Couey said.
The Superintendent provided the board with the architects’ most recent contingency log. Hand-washing stations entering the cafeteria have been added to the building plan. However, the architects have “actually put some money back into the contingency…They were able to use sand instead of rock for the fill in the foundation, so they put $25,000 back into the contingency,” Couey said.
“We are winding up the year. We have a lot of activities coming up in the next two weeks,” Couey announced. Graduation will be Friday, May 21 at 8 p.m. on the football field. “We will take temperatures as people enter, we’ll have hand sanitizer, we will require people to wear masks when they enter, and ask family groups to sit together and three feet apart from other family groups.” Because of precautions taken by those in leadership, there have been no recent Covid cases within the school. “We’re looking good as far as [case] numbers, and we’re hoping we can hold that out until the end of the year,” Couey said.
In other business, the board approved the employment of the following: Sheldon Miller as bus driver upon completion of training; Jennifer Web as a paraprofessional at Wheeler County Elementary School; Zoe Walden and Denise Lowry as elementary teachers; and Cindy Bowen as a speech pathologist. The board also approved the resignation of Angela Melton.
