Overton Schools To Move Forward With Improvement Plan

The Overton County School System is expected to receive about $2.7 million of COVID relief.

Board of Education Chairman Jarman Hicks said this allocation should be able to fund a proposed million dollar plan of school improvements. The proposal was drafted by Member William Abston but was tabled after funding concerns.

“Once we have the exact dollar amount and the stipulations in place, a lot of this money should be able to go to William’s proposal,” Hicks said. “With that said, the grants and that type of thing won’t be able to be incorporated in that proposal. We will go through the list. What can be will be.”

Hicks said the focus of work would be class room supplies and school upgrades that fall under the stipulations. Member Mike Hayes said upgrading HVAC units for each school could be accomplished with the funds.

“We have 344 units across the county,” Hayes said. “Over 200 and something of those were put into the 2000 project that we did. They are thirty years old almost.”

Funds can also be spent on PPE gear, sanitation, needs for disadvantage students, technology for remote learning, learning loss and school closure preparations.

Hicks said a total list of possible avenues of spending would be shared at the next board meeting. The fifty $5,000 in house grants for teachers would be removed from the fund balance proposal.

“As far as the fund balance proposal, we are going to try our best to incorporate what we can of that proposal into those moneys,” Hicks said. “The whole point of those was to add moneys into our classrooms for instructional use.”

The school system received about $780,000 of COVID funding in the summer.