It’s been just over six months since Greg Hamilton took over as superintendent of the Franklin County School system, and in that time the former Vina educator and coach says he has applied the same mentality to the his current job as he did to his old one: Work as hard as possible for the students and teachers of Franklin County.
Hard work. That is what the job requires, Hamilton said, but it is also a theme that he hit on multiple times in his interview with the Franklin Free Press last week. Even in the summer time – especially in the summer time – the superintendent’s day is filled with pressing matters.
Last Thursday morning, before talking with the Free Press, individuals were filing in to meet with Hamilton in his office.
“That’s about how it’s been just about every day for the last few weeks,” Hamilton said. “There are a lot of hours put into this job that a lot of people probably wouldn’t think about.”
A few of those matters include capitol projects at schools in the system. Just this past semester, a major addition to the Tharptown school was approved.
“When that project is completed, we’ll be getting a new cafeteria, 10 new classrooms, and a safe room compliant building,” said Hamilton, who is serving a four-year term. “We felt like that was a big home run and just a great success for us in the last six months.”
Hamilton says the Tharptown project should be completed before the start of the 2018-19 school year.
At Vina, a plan to put a new roof on the gymnasium has been approved and repairs to the Red Devil baseball field have already been made. But there is one important project at Vina that has hit a wall.
“The science and band building, that project still isn’t finish,” Hamilton said. “We’re still at odds over that and I’m in a disagreement with Risk Management.”
The science building/band room was built in 1948. It was damaged by an EF-0 tornado back in December and the school system and insurance carrier are now in an argument over whether a new building is needed.
“They think the building can be fixed and I absolutely disagree,” Hamilton said. “I think it’s a safety issue and I’m not going to put the kids in harm’s way. I’m not changing my mind on that one.”
Until the issue is resolved, Vina is using temporary spaces for the classes displaced.
Hamilton said no other future major capitol projects are currently being considered or planned.
While Hamilton continues to work to get the aforementioned projects started or completed, another issue that is always on his mind – the school system’s biggest issue – is finances.
The Franklin County School system has been operating in the red for many years, and while former superintendents have worked to lower the system’s debt, when Hamilton took over he inherited a $15 million problem.
According to alabamaschoolboards.org, the Franklin County School system faced a debt of $15,746,167 for the 2016-17 school year.
“The financial situation is not good,” Hamilton said. “We have a large accrued debt and we’re going to ask for approval at the next board meeting for $1.2 million to get us through this fiscal year.”
The Franklin County Board of Education is scheduled to vote on that motion for the $1.2 million at the Tuesday, July 25 meeting. That loan would come from CB&S Bank.
At the same time, Hamilton intends to chip away at the debt through personnel moves, revenue streams and by implementing other conservative, money-saving initiatives.
“Personnel moves, transfers, layoffs, and a few revenue streams for the next year, I anticipate, will start making the situation much better,” he said.
Personnel decisions may include moving some staff into funded positions that do not use local money, transferring personnel and scaling back on new hires. Another real possibility is layoffs.
“It’s hard making personnel decisions that may or may not affect someone’s livelihood,” Hamilton said. “You have to make decisions that coincide with the budget you have and what’s best for the school system. You have to run it is as a business.”
“There’s difficult decisions, there’s hard decisions, but you just have to do what’s best for the schools,” he added.
Hamilton is also looking to continue the teacher bonus incentive plan that he says was a success in its first semester.
“We had 87 employees that received the incentive bonus, so we had 87 employees that didn’t miss a day,” he said. “A lot of people don’t realize the costs of substitute teachers. You not only pay the sub, but you pay for the benefit package on top of that.”
“By all indications, it was a good start. We’re going to give the (incentive program) another year and hopefully put a big dent in substitute costs,” he added.
Last year the incentive was a $100 bonus, but Hamilton has said in the past that number could go up based on success and money available.
More good news is Franklin County Schools are looking to receive more state funding for the next school year, too. The system saw an increase in students last year that forced the board to hire more teachers and support personnel.
“Last year the county had to absorb 11 teachers, support personnel, plus all the students we added,” he said. “We paid for that ourselves last year, and that put us even further behind financially. But this year we’ll be paid for those extra students. Going into this year, we earned 15 new teaching units for the next fiscal year due to the increased enrollment.”
“That’s a lot for us. That’s basically like adding an entire 1A school to the system,” he added.
The financial problems are tough and will likely take many more years to solve, but Hamilton says he knew what he was getting in to when he ran for the job. He is optimistic the steps being taken now have worked and will continue to work.
“My ultimate goal is for Franklin County Schools to have the best teachers and successful students, and part of the process is getting the finances in order,” he said. “We have different things always coming down from the state, cutting programs. The federal budget was less this time, but we just have to make adjustments and good decisions when we’re faced with them.”
“I foresee that will some of the cuts and new revenue streams, it’s my goal and I believe that we can get (debt) down.”
The first six months of his tenure, Hamilton has had to adjust and transition as he went. Hamilton called his first semester in office a “learning experience” and was grateful for the support he has received from those around him.
“The central office staff has been instrumental, my school leaders have done a tremendous job, and they’re to be commended for what they do,” Hamilton said. “I can’t really thank those people enough for the assistance and support they’ve given me, and I’ll continue to rely on it in the future.”
“Some days are more difficult than others, but at the end of the day we have to remember that what we’re doing, the decisions I make, should be what’s best for the kids. That’s what we’re here for,” he added.
