News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
The Pickett County School Board will pursue renovations for Pickett County High School.
Director of Schools Diane Elder said the board has made the decision to renovate but would not likely further discuss renovations for the next few months. Elder said due to the size of the project the board wants to take the renovations one step at a time.
“I think it’s something that the board and I will have to review but it’s something I believe that we need to take by steps and not just jump into gun-ho,” Elder said. “And we need to take that a little slower when we are talking about that much money.”
County Commissioners hoped to make a decision two weeks ago, but the School Board was not ready. At Monday night’s meeting, the board did not discuss renovations at all.
Elder said the next step in the process is for the school board and county commission to figure out how the renovations will be done. Elder said she expects it to be several months before the county and Board of Education begin discussing what needs to be done in the renovations first.
“I don’t look for anything to happen on that for the next six to eight months,” Elder said.
Elder said a big part of why the board wants to wait to further discuss building renovations is due to bathroom renovations that are set to begin soon. Elder said when the sewer line to the lower hall of the building was dugout it uncovered an unpleasant surprise.
“They found probably 1,000 vapes in the septic system,” Elder said. “And we cleaned all that out. For the next day or the day after we had plumbing issues in that lower hall.”
Elder said the system was also backing up due to an excessive amount of toilet paper that had been flushed. Elder said the discovery caused her a little anxiety because she thought the lower hall was already taken care of. The project to repair plumbing issues in the bathrooms will cost an estimated $500,000.
In other business, the board approved schedules for varsity and junior varsity baseball, junior varsity softball, and the K-8 golf team. The board approved updating background investigations and proportion and retention policies on the first reading.
The board approved Food Supervisor Jessica Chambers to take and accept bids and renewals for food, food products, supplies, produce, milk, and pest control services for the 2025-2026 school cafeteria fund.
