Future of Clarkdale Elementary Up in the Air

The city of Austell is still picking itself up after the flood of September 2009. The students and staff of Clarkdale Elementary, which was completely ruined by the flood, have been temporarily divided into Austell Intermediate and Compton Elementary schools until the school is rebuilt. However, if the school is to be rebuilt, it may not be able to use available SPLOST funds if the school board follows the recommendation of its Facilities & Technology Committee at its Thursday regular meeting.

According to this story about the committee’s last meeting reported by the Marietta Daily Journal, the Cobb County Facilities & Technology committee voted 10-3, with Earl Stine, Don Hill and Beth Pollard dissenting, to have the school board again revisit rebuilding Clarkdale and consider redistricting the area.

The F & T committee is a citizens’ oversight committee created to oversee that SPLOST expenditures are being used appropriately. The committee can make recommendations, but the school board has the ultimate vote.

In May 2010, the committee asked the board to look into the amount of external insurance on CCSD facilities and expressed concern that facility underinsurance could adversely affect SPLOST resources, according to the 2010 F & T annual report.

This report also states that the new Clarkdale school was “planned to relieve overcrowding at Hollydale ES, Sanders ES, & other nearby elementary schools.”

The SPLOST III plan was adopted in September 2010, a year after the school flooded.

As reported in the MDJ, John Williams, appointed by School Board Chairwoman Alison Bartlett, said the $6 million from insurance could be used to add on to other schools, eliminating the need to spend $19.2 million for a new school.

However, according to the agenda for this week’s regular board meeting, the budget for the replacement school is $12.4 million, but the lowest bid for construction of the school from Carroll Daniel Construction Co. of Gainesville is $14.6 million, not $19.2 million. Update 7:15 p.m. 3/22: Williams was referring to the $19.2 million figure from February 2010, which includes the costs for demolition and land purchase that have already been paid as well as architect fees, furniture and additional fees.

The school board members voted at their last work session to move the vote on the construction bid for the new Clarkdale school from the consent agenda to the discussion portion of the regular meeting, just like all items that had a dollar amount of more than $5,000.

School Board Member David Morgan, who represents Clarkdale Elementary and other South Cobb area schools, told South Cobb Patch on Wednesday, “There are a lot of people really looking forward to that school being built, and I’m in agreement with them.”

However, some members of the F&T committee believe that the school may not necessarily need to be rebuilt.

Raymond Scott, an F & T committee member appointed by Bartlett, said, “I’m going to work to make sure it doesn’t get built … I don’t see them (school board members) as caring about our taxpayer’s dollars. That’s what I’m trying to do, restore some sanity to the school system and their spending of money. I hope the school doesn’t get built.”

Some committee members do think the school should be rebuilt, but using insurance and FEMA funds, not SPLOST dollars.

“The SPLOST isn’t designed to cover unforeseeable events, but very defined capital projects,” said Allen Massey, appointed by north Cobb School Board Member Kathleen Angelucci. “I’m not opposed to rebuilding the school. I think it’s horrible what happened there. They need a school … I just don’t think SPLOST is the appropriate way of paying for it.”

For Scott, even the insurance money should be spared and not used for a new Clarkdale school.

“So what? We can use that insurance money for something else,” Scott said, adding that not only would a new school cost the county money, but the maintenance and staff salaries would bring what he estimated to be a $2 million annual cost for county taxpayers. “Let’s just move those people or lay them off and close the school. Private industry wouldn’t put up with this.”

Massey also said that the No. 1 priority for SPLOST dollars should be elimination of temporary classrooms and overcrowding.

Beth Pollard, appointed by Mableton and Smyrna School Board Member Tim Stultz, cast one of the three dissenting votes because she, too, does not want children in temporary classrooms or trailers and does not want the board to need redistricting every year to account for the area's future growth.

 “If you just look at today, you’re going to be behind the eight-ball. You have to look at growth in your areas,” Pollard said. “That’s a significant hole in the community. We need to have the appropriated facilities in the appropriate locations to serve the children of this community.”

The 2010 annual report stated that the replacement school for Clarkdale would help eliminate overcrowding at nearby elementary schools, including Hollydale and Sanders elementary schools.

However, Scott said that the committee members specifically asked Doug Shepard, chief administrative officer for SPLOST, if these schools were overcrowded, and he told them that they were not.

Scott also said he was not opposed to the new Smyrna elementary school because “it’s needed.”

Pollard said the board already showed its intention to rebuild the school by purchasing the land for the school.

Mableton Elementary is also receiving a replacement school that is SPLOST-funded and will have a capacity to hold twice its current student population of about 450 students.

Despite the recently released U.S. Census figures which show that the southern part of the county had nearly 25 percent growth, where areas like Marietta saw its population decline nearly 4 percent, F&T Committee Member Leslie Rowbottom said “the rate of growth is slowing down.”

“We have two new schools of a fairly large size to be built in this area,” Rowbottom said, alluding to the new Smyrna and Mableton elementary schools. “That’s a lot of excess classroom space.”

The members of the community just want their school back. It provided not just a sense of cohesion, but also a sense of family and stability to the employees, students and parents of the school.

Kathryn Ray works as a clerk at Clarkdale. Two of her children went there, and her third, Tekoa, is currently a student in the separated school.

Ray and her family live on the back of the site of the old elementary school and she vividly remembers the flood.

“That day was very traumatic … To not have a school to go to, it would be kind of hard to not have something to show for it,” Ray said. “I think it would have an effect on Tekoa having to lose the family side of her school. It’s just like having to move to another state almost, having to start over.”

Although the community members said losing Clarkdale would be losing a large part of their neighborhood, Scott said it’s more important to monitor taxpayers’ dollars.

“Alison’s only words when she put me on the board were ‘treat it like it’s your money,’” Scott said. “It may not be a popular opinion, but I’m looking after the taxpayers’ money.”

The school board will hold its regular meeting on Thursday at 7 p.m. at the Cobb Central Office at 514 Glover Street in Marietta.

Update 2:47 p.m. March 22: Doug Shepard's title has been added to this article.