Hughes: Sullivan BOE moving forward with facilities plan

BLOUNTVILLE — Make no mistake, the leader of a local school board says, a plan for a new high school and middle school is on track despite two proposals to change course.Sullivan County Board of Education Chairman Michael Hughes said the school board is firm in its resolve to move forward with the proposed new high school and middle school, phase 1 of a facilities plan the board has adopted.During Monday night's Board of Education meeting, Hughes gave a nutshell timeline for the facilities plan first envisioned in 2013. His timeline came after board member Mark Ireson's failed attempt to get the board to consider an alternative plan to renovate existing schools instead of building new ones during Thursday's called board meeting. Ireson's motion failed for lack of a second.In addition, Joe Cerone proposed an alternative plan during the public comment section of the September board meeting. However, Hughes did not allow Cerone to speak at the October meeting, saying Cerone lives outside Sullivan County in the Kingsport portion of Hawkins County. And no board member has yet proposed the Cerone plan be brought before the board for a vote.Hughes said the facilities plan, which would build a 1,700-student high school with a career technical education focus somewhere around Exit 63 of Interstate 81 and an 800-student middle school in the Sullivan East High School zone, came after consideration of a plan in early 2013 and the start of a facilities study by consultant DeJong-Richter, part of a separate but parallel study for Kingsport by the same firm. It underwent a series of public meetings and input sessions.He said Sullivan County Commission approval to seek sites and school designs was made based on the proposal the board is pursuing.The BOE approved the final report and recommendation from then-Director of Schools Jubal Yennie in August of 2015, and the school board received permission from the County Commission to seek architects and properties for both facilities in January of 2016. Interstate Realty of Bristol is searching for locations, while Kingsport-based Cain Rash West Architects/LS3P Associates Ltd. is to design both the $60 million high school and $20 million middle school.Knoxville-based Cope Associates Architecture had been chosen for the middle school when CRW/LS3P was chosen for the high school, but the board at a called meeting Sept 29 unanimously halted negotiations because of what board attorney Pat Hull called a series of things Cope proposed but that the BOE never approved.Newly elected board member Ireson, who like the rest of the seven-member panel voted Thursday to end the negotiations with Cope, asked at Monday's meeting if the required five-day public notice was given for the Cope contract consideration. Hughes and Director of Schools Evelyn Rafalowski said it was.However, Ireson Monday cast the lone vote against a policy to amend the school system's attendance area policy. He said the facilities plan refers repeatedly to that policy, which is to be changed in the third of three readings at the Nov. 7 BOE meeting."I really don't think it's right to be changing that as you're moving forward," Ireson said. Rafalowski has characterized the change as mostly moving procedural matters out of the policy. The phase 1 proposal on track now would put all the current North and South high zone students and most Central students in the new high school, with the other 250 or so shifted to East. Kingsport would buy North and turn it into a city middle school.Ireson's plan would keep Sullivan South, East and either North or Central open by renovating them, depending on whether Kingsport bought North.Cerone's plan, which would leave in place letting Kingsport buy Sullivan North for conversion to a city middle school, would refurbish South and East and build a new East zone middle school and a new west end middle school for $20 million. Central High no longer would be needed, and Cerone said one potential use would be as a women's facility to relieve overcrowding at the county jail in Blountville.