White Co Schools Layout Capital Projects Plan For Next Five Years

The White County School System wants to invest $300,000 annually into capital projects over the next five years.

Director of Schools Kurt Dronebarger said a new five year plan was needed with the previous one nearing completion.

“With the influx of ESSER funds, we were able to check a lot of those things off of our list,” Dronebarger said. “This is not necessarily a to do list. This is just an estimation of what we think our needs wil be over the next five years.”

Dronebarger said the plan starts in 2023. It includes restroom upgrades at Doyle Elementary, roof replacement of central office, bleacher replacements at the high school and upgrading the high school’s softball hitting facility.

“Some of these items were intended to be a part of ESSER,” Dronebarger said. “We thought there was going to be a round of ESSER 4 money that came through the President’s infrastructure bill that did not come to past.”

School Board Chair Jayson McDonald said the big spending years will come in year three and five. Dronebarger said those projects include additional classrooms at Doyle Elementary and a proposed expansion of the office suite at the high school.

“The $300,000 budget has been pretty standard,” Dronebarger said. “That’s something that is kind of a threshold that we try to stick with in our budget to keep us several projects. With that in mind, we try to spread those projects out over this five year plan. In years three and five, we have a little bigger projects that we are trying to hit, so that our budget doesn’t take huge hits during one particular year.”

The improvement plan was presented to the Board of Education Thursday coming from committee.

Tennessee school systems have received three round of ESSER funding also known as Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Fund. The federal funding was distributed to assist schools with COVID.