Cannery Decision Tabled Again by Stephens BOE

Stephens County Board of Education members again table a decision on whether or not to cut back hours and services at the Cannery.

The school board discussed the cannery on Tuesday at its regular monthly meeting.

Stephens County School Superintendent Bryan Dorsey said budget numbers show a deficit of about $217,000 for the cannery over the last five years, with losses continuing this year.

He has suggested reducing the cannery’s operational hours in an effort to save money. According to Dorsey, this cannery is the only year-round functional cannery operated by a school system in Georgia that he is aware of.

Tuesday, Dorsey presented another proposal to the board.

He said this one involves working towards privatizing the cannery.

“One of the things I would like to recommend to you for your consideration, feedback, and input on is if we did go ahead and move our full-time employee (at the cannery) to an opening we have in January so that we protect that position and that person can decide if they want to accept that position or not and (have staff) work out a schedule with the Ag Department to try and keep the cannery operational for a two, three, or four day period (a week) through January and we would solicit a Request for Proposals for privatizing the cannery.”

According to Dorsey, the county commission may be interested in operating the cannery, and if not, there may be other people interested in leasing and operating the facility.

Multiple people spoke in support of the Cannery on Tuesday.

Mark Wilkinson said the school board needs to avoid acting in haste.

“I do not know how anybody can say on this board or in the county that we know what the books were for the cannery over the last five years,” said Wilkinson. “One more thing that bothered me a little bit. You are talking about breaking even. I ask someone to name one thing in the school system, football, cheerleading, basketball band, that breaks even. It is not always about making a profit. It is about education.”

Jonesy Haygood also spoke and asked the Board to give the Cannery a chance with better policies and procedures.

School board member Jim Ledford said the board should keep the cannery the way it is until August to give it time to see if it could turn around.

“Nobody has looked at anything for several years, and now we are going to start looking,” said Ledford. “I think we can turn it around.”

Supporters said the cannery used to break even each year.

Board member Jeff Webb said that needs to be looked into before any decision is finalized.

“All we want to do is be self-sufficient,” said Webb. “If it was self-sufficient all those years and was not the last five years, maybe we need to go back to the people that ran it years before and run it the way they did it.”

Board member David Fricks said the school system cannot continue to wait on making this decision with the budget situation the school system is facing.

“The tough decisions are going to keep coming every month,” said Fricks. “We cannot just say we are going to put it off.”

Dorsey said that the school system’s budget situation is tight already this fiscal year and decisions cannot wait until the end of the fiscal year in the summer.

“We have enough cash on hand to make January and December payroll,” said Dorsey, who added that by March, “we will not have money to pay for anything without tax anticipation notes.”

Also, Dorsey said the school system will probably need to find $750,000 to $1 million in the next fiscal year to make the budget work next year.

Ledford’s motion to keep it the way it is at the cannery until August failed with all but Ledford voting against it.

A motion by Webb to table until January passed 6 to 1 with Ledford opposed.

The Stephens County Board of Education is expected to re-visit the cannery issue now in January.