Building needs under review

AIKEN --- Facility studies and creation of a building campaign for Aiken County schools are no longer back-burner issues.

The Aiken County school board voted Tuesday to begin constructing a facility plan that assesses long-range goals, including new schools, at the Oct. 27 meeting.

In 2007, the board commissioned a study by Columbia-based M.B. Kahn on a master construction plan for the district. The board agreed to get community feedback on the report before deciding how to incorporate it as part of a district-improvement strategy. But the issue was pushed back by budget concerns.

Though some of the demographics have changed, board members said the information in the study was still relevant, including overcrowding at 21 schools and the fact that more than half of the district's buildings were 40 years to 60 years old.

The district gets less than $14 million a year for maintenance. More than $10 million of that goes toward cyclical maintenance.

Aiken County administrators advised a three-month timeline to discuss program and building needs, design and construction, and financing. Several board members agreed they would like the public feedback sessions to take place in each attendance area, rather than ask constituents to drive to the district office.

Board members will give their individual priorities, using the Kahn study and a 2006 internal facilities study, to Superintendent Beth Everitt on Tuesday to incorporate in the next meeting's discussion.

The school board also approved the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control's administering H1N1 vaccines at school.

Schools will send permission slips home one week before the clinic, according to Associate Superintendent for Administration Cecelia Davidson. Dr. Davidson said clinic dates have not been set, but DHEC has said vaccines will go out in October.

Reach Julia Sellers at (706) 823-3424 or julia.sellers@augustachronicle.com.