The Mitchell County Schools Board of Education met Thursday for its regular October meeting.
Facilities update
Mitchell County Schools hopes to open up its new athletic complex sometime in November.
Superintendent Chad Calhoun said that the finished facility should be quite impressive. The facility will include a golf simulator and an indoor practice area for sports teams with artificial turf.
Calhoun said that while some community members might be concerned that the district might need other things more than a new athletic facility, he is limited because there are grants available to build things like a new athletic center, whereas there are not always grants offered for more mundane expenses.
“All these projects were grant-funded projects with no (local) taxpayer dollars — they were all written grants,” Calhoun said. “And a lot of people say, well, why didn’t you write the grants for something else? Well, that’s what those grants were available for. They couldn’t be written for anything else.”
Calhoun indicated that there aren’t always grants earmarked for the district’s greatest needs, so district staff members apply for the types of grants that are currently available.
“You could say, okay, I would like to put $100,000 in the library — I’d love to also, but we’ve not found a grant that would pay for that yet,” he said. “Not that we’re not looking, because we are. But (athletic facilities are) what these grants were for.”
Calhoun said that grant limitations can be misleading when community members are trying to gauge the district’s priorities.
“So, I think a lot of misconception gets out there to the public, (that) we’re just spending the money on building, we’re just spending the money on athletics,” he said. “Well, no, we’re not. We’re writing grants for everything we can find. We’ve just been fortunate enough to get these grants that are specific to these areas.”
Board Member Sam Blevins praised the district’s administrative staff for writing the grant applications that led to the new athletic facility and said that he was very impressed with the quality of the space and the equipment.
“It just blows my mind,” Blevins said. “That’s university-level or something.”
Calhoun noted that cheerleaders and band members can also use the new facility for practice.
“It’s not just for athletes,” he said. “It’s going to be available for all students.”
Funding issues
Calhoun informed the board that the school district will probably receive less transportation funding in the future because bus ridership has dropped by around 60 students.
At present, the shutdown of the federal government has not had a strong impact on local schools because federal funding was received in July. However, the district has lost federal funding of snacks for after-school students.
Meeting rescheduled
The board agreed to reschedule its November meeting for Nov. 13, owing to conflict.