Stephens Co. BOE Moving Forward With SCHS Roof Work

The Stephens County Board of Education is moving forward with roof work at Stephens County High School.

On Tuesday, the Stephens County Board of Education unanimously approved a bid for the work and also approved all of the necessary paperwork for the Stephens County Schools Building Authority to pursue bonds to help forward fund the project.

The total bid approved by the school board for the project is $1,336,204 and Bowen and Watson will serve as the general contractor and will do demolition work associated with the project. The roof work will be done by Summers Roofing.

Stephens County School Superintendent Bryan Dorsey said the planned work is fairly extensive.

He said it includes the old gym, the old cafeteria, and the old part where the office and media center used to be, along with the CTAE wing.

According to Dorsey, the next step is to find bonds to finance the project.

Those bonds will be taken out by the Stephens County Schools Building Authority, which the school board formed earlier this year.

Dorsey said the plan is to use the Building Authority debt to reimburse the general fund for the work and then use a future renewal of the one-cent sales tax for education, if passed, to pay off the Building Authority debt.

He did say that he feels the general fund could cover the debt even if voters did not vote to renew the sales tax.

According to Dorsey, the plan is to start work once school lets out for students and hopefully have it done by the start of the next school year.