The Russellville City Board of Education approved its revised annual capital plan at its meeting last week and the board is swinging for the fences with its priority listing of capital outlay projects.
Russellville City Schools Superintendent Heath Grimes said the annual listing of projects the board would like to complete is just that—a list. But the requested projects, which include major renovations and additions for Russellville High School, serve as a road map for the State of Alabama when it comes to determining funding levels.
“It's just an idea of what we'd like to see here in the district,” Grimes said. “It's more for the state to see our needs and the dollar amount attached to those.
“There are a lot of things on the plan we can't do but would like to do,” he added.
At the top of the system's priority listing is the addition of a new vocational building for Russellville High School, at an estimated cost of $3,000,000. The second priority includes additional classrooms, a science lab and administration office and new gym for RHS, at a cost of $10,000,000.
“We need to update the campus and add a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) wing,” Grimes said. “We also want to update wiring for technology.
“All that is not possible because we don't have the funding to do that. It's listed as priority one but it can't get accomplished without state funding through a bond issue,” Grimes added.
He explained the projects were part of a five-year plan that shows the state the system's priorities and needs within the system.
“I've been a superintendent 10 years and there's been no bond issue from the state in that time,” Grimes said.
The district saw the completion of a new eight-classroom addition this fall. Funding for that project came out of the system's general fund at a cost of approximately $2 million.
“It's unusual to be able to fund a project like that out of the general fund. Those were capital funds we had saved over a number of years to do something with,” Grimes said. “We had built a reserve to more than $4 million. (Former Superintendent) Rex Mayfield and the board deserve credit for that as they were very conservative in not spending a lot on capital projects.
“We decided there were some things we needed to do so we did,” he added.
The State of Alabama requires school systems to maintain a reserve fund equal to one month's operating budget. The practice of Russellville City Schools, Grimes said, is to keep a two month reserve on hand.
“With the middle school addition, we're very close to that two month reserve now so we have to build back to a safe zone. It will be a while until we can do anything capital-wise out of the general fund,” Grimes said.
Other proposed projects on the list include a new roof on the pods and cafeteria at West Elementary School ($300,000), a new roof on the kindergarten building at West ($500,000), covering the skylights with metal and adding an entrance at Russellville Middle School ($365,000) and other projects totaling an estimated $15,670,000.
