JF Morgan, General Contractors, Incorporated of Anniston was awarded the contract to build the new seventh grade wing at Jacksonville High School and a mini-gym at Kitty Stone Elementary during a called meeting of the Jacksonville Board of Education on March 14. Of the five contractors who bid for the contract, the JF Morgan bid of $1,783,874 was the lowest.Dr. Eric Mackey, superintendent for the Jacksonville City Schools, said he was working with Cal Munroe, the architect on the project, and Morgan to reduce the cost further, since the total project cost with architect’s fees will be approximately $1.95 million.
“We had set originally a $2 million budget, but of course we wanted it to come in way under that,” said Mackey. “What we have is $1.6 million in state funds and we have $300,000 in our capital outlay public school fund that is easily accessible, which is $1.9.”
The seventh-grade wing will be a single-story addition off the current eighth-grade floor of the high school. In addition to a special education room the board plans to equip with a washer, dryer and small kitchen, there will be six classrooms for the seventh graders. One of the classrooms will have the ability to be converted into a science lab.
At Kitty Stone Elementary, the air-conditioned mini-gym will give the school the ability to hold PE classes while special events are going on in the older building.
The board also met earlier last week, on March 11, for their regularly scheduled meeting. During that meeting, the board approved the cessation of a contract with the Calhoun County Career Technical Center.
Each year, the Jacksonville school system pays $59,761 each year to the Calhoun County School System to send students from JHS to the center. In recent years, the number of students choosing the career technical school option has dwindled and only 10 students currently attend.
“Under the old agreement, we are required to pay them $59,761 a year whether anyone comes or not,” said Mackey. “They’re going for an hour and a half a day. There are some good teachers over there and some good programs, but we have a student that is going to Gadsden State through the ECEP program now and she’s there full time, all day long, getting all her coursework provided by Gadsden State and she’s getting dual high school and college credit and they offer that in 12 different technical fields. And that only costs us $2,000 a year.”
Mackey outlined options to the board for those students still wishing to pursue a technical education including the Gadsden State Community College Early College Education Program and a possible addition of faculty members in JHS’ own career tech program.
The board plans to end the CCCTC contract at the end of this school year and will be researching options for expanding the JHS career tech faculty during the 2008-09 school year before making any further decisions.
In other action, the board:
• Approved looking into a “senior seminar” option for high school seniors. This option would give students in good standing the ability to take classes at JSU or GSCC or get jobs during the last two class periods each day.
• Approved a list of acceptable reading textbooks.
• Adopted the revised Board Policy Manual.
• Held the first reading of the 2008-2009 Code of Student Conduct.
The next board meeting is scheduled for April 8 at 6:30 p.m. in the Central Office with a work session scheduled at 5:30 p.m.
