Mountain Ed to Move To Eastanollee Elementary Building

The Mountain Education Charter High School in Stephens County will move out to Eastanollee Elementary in the coming months.

Tuesday, the Stephens County Board of Education approved an agreement with Mountain Ed for it to use Eastanollee Elementary for its program.

Previously, Mountain Ed has been located in the old Big A Elementary School.

Stephens County School Superintendent Bryan Dorsey said that under the agreement, Mountain Ed would pay the school system $20,000 a year plus custodial costs.

Dorsey said that amount would cover any operational costs.

“That facility at full operations on energy is about $79,000 a year,” said Dorsey. “They would only be using the new wing, so that is less than 1/3 the footprint. They would only be using it four days a week for students and four hours a day, so I feel they will more than cover their operational costs for being out there.”

In addition, Mountain Ed has not been paying custodial costs under the previous agreement.

Dorsey said the school system can also separate that HVAC system so that only the part of the school being used is being fully climate controlled.

He went on to say that there is another advantage to having Mountain Ed in Eastanollee.

“If we hold students in that building, we stay under the same regulations,” said Dorsey. “If we do not hold students in that building and should ever desire to return students to that building, it would come under new regulations,” said Dorsey.

Moving Mountain Ed to Eastanollee also creates room at the old Big A School.

Dorsey said that they are looking at the possibility of moving administrative offices in there at some point.

“We want to; we have not planned to,” said Dorsey. “We have not really orchestrated that at this time.”

The Stephens County Board of Education approved the agreement with Mountain Ed unanimously.

It is a one-year agreement.

Mountain Education Charter High School is a completely separate entity from the Stephens County school system with its own separate board that leases a facility from the school system and serves residents of Stephens County, as well as other area counties.