Leeds City Schools had plenty to celebrate while preparing for the groundbreaking ceremony for the new middle school, located just in front of the current Leeds High School location, Wednesday, April 30.In a monumental move for the Leeds School System, the board closed on more than $40 million in bonds Thursday, April 24, that will help build the two new schools.
Dirt is already moving at both school sites, but the official groundbreaking ceremonies began Wednesday, April 30, with the groundbreaking of Leeds Middle School and ends with the groundbreaking of Leeds High School Wednesday, May 7.
Superintendent Billy Pack said the closing on the bonds lifted a lot of financial worry the board members had been experiencing because they knew how important it was to have the new schools.
“We were overjoyed when we heard the bonds had closed,” Pack said. “All the efforts of the mayor and the City Council, the Public Education Building Authority and the BOE had helped fulfill our desire to have first-rate facilities for our students.”
Pack said that while the amount of proceeds from the bonds is not what the board had projected, at about $46 million, it will be easier to find ways to reduce building costs now that the BOE knows the actual amount.
“Right after the bids went out and we reviewed the money from the bids, we began making decisions on some alternatives,” Pack said. “We have also discussed suggested value as far as engineering, contractors and architects. We can now look at our expected expenditures, compare that against the proceeds, and start making decisions relative to future projects such as the athletic facility.”
Pack said Gary C. Wyatt, the general contractor in charge of the projects, has kept construction on schedule. This has been helped in part by a lack of weather delays, but is overall due to Wyatt’s willingness to work with the city and the board, Pack said.
“I am pleased with his efforts and his commitment to the project,” Pack said. “Everyone is interested in the projects and happy with the successful bids.”
The projected completion dates for the schools are June 2009 for Leeds Middle School and September 2009 for Leeds High School.
The Board of Education also recently decided to return to the 10-point grading scale at the beginning of the next school year after using an eight-point grading scale for a few years.
While the board initially thought the change in the grading scale would encourage students to strive to achieve higher goals, parents attended BOE meetings to let the board know some students who had not struggled before were now having a hard time keeping their grades up to their personal standards.
Parents also expressed concern that students who had already struggled to keep passing grades would feel like failures with the eight-point scale.
The board agreed to send out a survey to let the people in the community voice their opinions, but members were slightly delayed by attempting to get two new schools built as well.
After sending out the survey to teachers, parents and other community members, the board decided to return to the 10-point grading scale beginning in the 2008-2009 school year.
