Stephens BOE Raises Cannery Prices

Stephens County school board members continue to debate what to do with the cannery.

The Stephens County Board of Education discussed the cannery again at its work session and called meeting on Thursday.

Last month, Stephens County School Superintendent Bryan Dorsey announced that the cannery’s operations, after much discussion, had ben cut from 10 hours a day, four days a week to eight hours a day, four days a week, in a cost-saving effort.

However, the cannery continues to run a deficit.

School officials told the school board Thursday that if no changes were made to prices and everything stayed the same with sales and costs, the cannery is on pace to lose $45,000 this year.

Meanwhile, if prices at the cannery were doubled and everything else stays just as it is, that deficit drops to about $7,000.

Dorsey said staff is looking for final direction from the board on how to leave the cannery so that staff can focus on other things.

“We have spent a lot of time on this and we have so many other things that I feel we should be focusing on,” said Dorsey.

Dorsey said it was the Board’s pleasure as to what to decide, but that a decision was needed in order to move on to other things.

There were talks with numerous groups about privatizing the cannery.

However, Dorsey said that nobody has shown enough interest to continue pursuing it.

“We talked to the county and once they saw our numbers for the cannery, they decided they were no longer interested and the few people that have called us, once they see the hard numbers they are no longer interested in privatizing it,” said Dorsey.

Board of Education member Dr. Elizabeth Pinkerton said doubling prices appears to be the best option right now.

“That is what we are going to have to do to continue to operate it,” she said.

Meanwhile, school board member Jim Bellamy said he feels they still need to reach out to retired High School Agriculture Teacher Ferman Gregory in an effort to make the cannery work.

“He is a guru,” said Bellamy. “Why do we not ask him to act as a consultant in helping us get this thing in the black? I believe he is the one man in the county who can.”

Board members voted unanimously to both double prices and ask Gregory if he would look at the cannery’s operations with the school board.