Dalton school board tables bond discussions

Nov. 7—Members of the Dalton Board of Education convened on Monday for a special called meeting at City Hall — although no official votes were ultimately taken on any agenda items.

The board was originally set to vote on a proposed general fund revenue bond issuance related to school bus purchases. That was taken off the table when the Dalton City Council opted to remove a $13 million resolution from its own agenda for Monday evening.

"The City Council, I guess, would like to do a little more due diligence," said Dalton Public Schools Superintendent Tim Scott. "The issue we have right now is the opportunity to get buses and have them before school starts is probably gone — so anything we would get might be October or December."

The bonds would go toward the purchase of new vehicles and renovations for bus barns.

Mayor David Pennington told the Dalton Daily Citizen that council members felt unclear about the board's plans.

"They were talking about using some of this money for school reconfiguration and that is something they need to take to the voters," he said.

Dalton Public Schools Chief Financial Officer Theresa Perry said the district was eyeing a sizable discount — albeit, one that hinged on "a longer-term" agreement.

The district has contracted out bus services for decades.

School board Chairman Matt Evans said lateness has been an issue with the buses, especially at Hammond Creek.

"I think we need to talk about that with them," he said. "If we're going to have to at least do a one-year or two-year (agreement), we should spell out 'Hey, these are some things that could be done or would help us.'"

He asked if there was an opportunity for "district staff" to drive the buses.

"The discussions that we had with them, our teachers would then have to become employed by them as a substitute," Scott responded. "And then they have a ranking system for who gets to do routes ... I've asked for buses to be left at the school so we could have access to them and they want to charge us for that."

Evans said he was blindsided by the City Council's decision to table the resolution.

"I don't think any of us understand," he said. "Our staff met with the Finance Committee, what, in September? and everyone in the meeting was quiet and seemed to indicate no problem."

If city of Dalton officials had issues with the district's plans, Perry said they should've voiced them at the aforementioned meeting on Sept. 14.

"Or sometime thereafter, not Nov. 4," she said. "The best scenario would be either at the meeting you tell us that you don't like this and you'd rather us doing something else or at least figure it out within the next month before we had our meeting."

Evans said the district's strategic plan places an emphasis on continuous improvement of secondary reconfigurations.

"A lot of that for us is further developing our Career, Technical and Agricultural Education (CTAE) and our Pathways that we offer to our students at our two high schools," he said. "When we're talking about (reconfigurations), it's really what we started in '20 — because the voters approved it starting in 2017 and we're learning what's working and what's not, what could be done better, what needs to be done differently and trying to incorporate that into the options and the choices that we have for our students."

Many of those secondary options, Scott said, are matched up with emerging industry trends.

"As that changes, we will always be looking at is this the best pathway?" he said. "AI is here, really, and we've not done much of that. But in the future I can see that being some kind of training or pathway."

Scott said his understanding was that Pennington wanted to see the resolution matter go before a community vote.

"Our reconfiguration is not building a new school or redoing all the grade levels," he said. "It's looking at CTAE areas."

"I don't think we have clarity," Evans said. "But we'll work on getting it, if we need another revenue bond."

The meeting concluded with school board members entering into an executive session to discuss property.