The Covington Independent Public Schools Board of Education continued their discussions on a battery of district building projects at Thursday night’s meeting. The projects include various renovations in and around Holmes High School as well as a potential new softball field for the district.
The board and district staff had first discussed the projects in January, following other discussions from November about ballooning building costs in the district. At the November meeting, Board Member Stephen Gastright, who works professionally as an architect, expressed dismay that a project relating to Holmes’ ventilation system had climbed from about $4 million to just over $7 million and said that he was unwilling to approve any more building projects until the district presented updated estimates.
Initial estimates for the projects on Thursday’s agenda put overall expenses at about $11 million.
One key consideration in the January discussions was whether the softball field ought to be removed from the rest of the projects and bid out separately. The buildings in the district are old and would require specialized knowledge to renovate, unlike the softball field. The thinking was that the district might get more attention from contractors if the field was a separate project, although this would entail additional administrative costs and board approvals.
The board members had met with district staff members in the interim between the two meetings to learn more. Most of the board members, as well as Superintendent Alvin Garrison, expressed support for separating out the softball field project. In addition, Garrison recommended the field be constructed on the campus of Glenn O. Swing Elementary, rather than Holmes, a development not previously brought up in public meetings.
“My recommendation is definitely that we move it to Glenn O., and we would love to get started as soon as possible,” Garrison said.
District Administrative Manager Eric Neff said that constructing the field at Glenn O. Swing would bring the cost of the field’s construction down to about $2.4 million, based on his own examination of the numbers. Documents from the district put the original cost estimates for the field at about $3.2 million.
Although most board members expressed support for separating the field from the other projects, there were questions about whether moving the field from its original slated location was a good idea.
Board Member Kareem Simpson didn’t think the parking infrastructure for Glenn O. Swing was conducive for housing a softball field.
“I don’t think it’s viable to have that space being used for this type of project,” Simpson said.
Simpson added that such a project would probably need more planning. Board Member Hannah Edelen recommended pulling on other neighborhood partners to help solve the parking problem.
In January, the district had presented recommendations to the board about cutting parts of the campus renovations to save costs. To that end, Garrison also asked the board for guidance on whether those recommended cuts ought to be changed and if any potential savings that might arise from moving the softball field could be reinvested into the other campus projects.
Gastright pointed out that many of the remaining renovations focused on athletic facilities, such as renovations to the locker rooms, and wondered if the scales could be tipped back towards facilities that would benefit the majority of the student body, rather than the portion of students who participate in athletics.
“I think intuition just tells you that, you know, there is possibly a better way to spend that money to impact the scores and performance of students that we’re looking at everyday,” Gastright said.
Board Member Glenda Huff agreed that priority should be put in facilities that benefited the students broadly.
Simpson pointed out that many of the athletic and physical education facilities hadn’t been updated in a long time.
“Some of the equipment in the weight room was there when I was in high school,” Simpson said.
Garrison agreed and said that this process was a way of prioritizing all of the things in the district that needed updating.
“It all needs work,” Garrison said. “We have an old facility, and, in my opinion, our kids deserve to be in the best facility we can make in all those spaces.”
No official action on the matter was taken at the meeting, and Board President Tom Haggard encouraged the board members to think about what to consider for the next meeting.
The Covington Independent Board of Education will meet again on Feb. 21 at 5:30 p.m. at the district’s central office on East 7th Street.