Putnam County Commissioners said there are several possible ways to begin the conversation toward a new high school off Old Sparta Road.
School Board Members said they would like to begin discussions about picking up the option on the land from the City Of Cookeville. Commissioner Jonathan Williams said the county should be proactive and acquire the land even if it is not ready to build a new school yet.
“It’s in a location that they would, that would be favorable for a future high school,” Williams said. “So I don’t know at this point what other options they would be looking at. I think they’ve done their homework and I believe that’s the parcel they would like to buy so we need to make a decision about this piece right now.”
Commissioner Terry Randolph said he does not see the need to rush into a purchase because the county already has an option on the land. Randolph said the county would be better off financially if it waited two to three years before it issued another major bond for a new school, so the land can wait as well.
“I don’t think that it’s hurting us financially to wait and make that purchase when we’re, but it wouldn’t really matter at any rate if it does go up,” Randolph said. “We are not in a position as a county to do that right now, to bond that.”
Commissioner Ken Hall said it is a good time to consider purchasing the land if the school board can show a need for it. Hall said the county needs to find a balance in its plans so it can expand to handle growth without raising property taxes.
“You don’t want to be pushed into a situation where you’re buying something that you don’t need within the next couple of years,” Hall said. “And again, they’re not creating anymore land.”
Hall said it will be up to the school board to determine when a new high school is necessary as the county could wait and hold onto the land if it does go through with the purchase.
“If you look at Wilson County, they’re experiencing the same type of growth that we’re experiencing here and they’ve already created a new high school,” Hall said. “I think now there’s two large high schools in the Lebanon area so if we’re growing like it looks like we are then we might need to jump on this property unless there’s a property somewhere that’s better suited and at a more reasonable price.”
Randolph said he is open to talking with the school board about purchasing the land sooner in order to hold onto it for the future. Randolph said he is sure other commissioners would also be willing to listen but it is unclear if that plan is actually feasible.
“The whole situation for me is any kind of huge tax increase,” Randolph said. “If we do this for the school system, I’d like to be able to do it without a tax increase if that’s possible. We were able to bond the, well, the new Park View School I guess you’d say, and then the jail without a property tax increase because we had enough funds in our debt service to be able to do that.”
Williams said building a new school on that land is a wholly separate discussion that will require the commission and the school board to talk about a bond. Williams said the county needs to keep rising costs in mind as these conversations get underway but he is not overly concerned about an increase in prices for this situation.
“The timing and the addition to the high school is really up to them,” Williams said. “They’re the ones who were elected to deal with school issues directly so when they say the time is right then we’ll have that discussion.”
