The big news of the school board meeting Monday night, July 25, 2011, was the updates on all of the new school buildings and renovations. The big question on everyone’s mind with school about to begin was, will they be ready? Robert Miles, Purchasing Agent, said he had assurances from the contractors they would be ready. “At Taylorsville they have started moving in,” he said. The cafeteria at Mize will be ready to start moving in Tuesday morning. They plan to move the 5th and 6th grade into the big building at Raleigh Elementary. Raleigh Elementary has light fixtures that go off when no one is in the room and the central air switches from cool to heat automatically to maintain a set temperature. Ribbon cutting ceremonies will be August 2, Election Day, starting at 9 a.m. with the Mize Cafeteria.

The campus at Raleigh Elementary School is asbestos free, according to Miles. The Department of Environmental Quality gave the school district permission to proceed with their asbestos management plan at Turner Chapel. Miles said, “Supervisor of Beat Five, Howard Hammons, has already started with the demolition.” The debris will be put in the gully behind the maintenance department at Raleigh Elementary, according to Miles.

Other repairs and plans for improvement include the field house at Raleigh High School. The doors have chains holding them because the locks are broken. A recent burglary brought Larry Means, coach at Raleigh, to the last board meeting to ask for help.

Renee Waites, school board member, said she spoke to Durwood Anderson. He said when he came to Raleigh in 2003 the doors were not functioning properly. Waites said she understood Anderson to say the doors at Morton, where he previously worked, were from the same company and they were replaced because of a defect. Her main concern was whether the doors were being taken care of. Replacing them would not solve the problem if they were not taken care of. If the doors were already defective, care would not have made a difference.

Miles said, he was checking into options and had door people coming to look at the situation for quotes and suggestions.

Working through the agenda the school board members voted to employ the classified staff and to set the salaries for the 2011-2012 school year. Duane Fewell, Business Manager, said all salaries would stay the same except for those paid by scale. Those paid by scale are determined by years of experience, teacher’s assistant, certified staff, and cafeteria workers.

Fewell’s official last day was to be at the end of July, but he said he would be in the next couple of meetings to help. The board voted to hire Lisa Thompson for the position he is vacating as School Business Manager. She will start September 1.

Benjamin Dove was hired as a bus driver for Raleigh and James M. Cain for Mize.

The order to award the bid for the Mize cleaning service was put on hold by the board members. Mark Roberts, school board member for that area, was not present. Reverend Hicks said Roberts asked him to ask the board members to hold the vote until he could be present. David Burris, principal at Mize, was in the meeting and said he could wait. They worked with the current janitors all year last year. All of the votes taken were four for and one absent.

Article published in the Reformer on July 27, 2011