School district plans $2 million for repairs

Daily Journal staff reports

The Edinburgh school district plans to borrow $2 million to make heating and air conditioning, roof and other building repairs.

School officials want to replace a chiller at East Side Elementary School and a boiler at Edinburgh Community High School. Sections of roofs at the elementary, middle and high schools need to be repaired, and officials also want to renovate music space at the high school.

The high school’s music department hasn’t been upgraded in at least 20 years, and that project will include fixing a leaking walk, replacing carpet and converting a pit-style floor into a level surface, Superintendent William Glentzer said.

“We’re just going through and getting things up where (they) need to be, as far as the band room at the music department and making it a pleasant place to learn,” he said.

School districts collect property tax dollars that are used to make building upgrades and repairs, but Edinburgh and other school districts have been collecting less money for those repairs because of property tax caps. Right now, Edinburgh has between $300,000 and $400,000 in the fund that pays for building upkeep, and the school district has to borrow money to be able to make all of the necessary repairs, Glentzer said.

“That’s about the only way small schools can operate,” he said.

The tax rate for Edinburgh schools isn’t expected to increase because the school district is paying off debt in 2016 for renovations at the high school and repairs made to heating systems throughout the school district in 2005, according to Glentzer and business director Tammy Lewis.