Updated 8-20-20 at 11:25 p.m.
Cullman City School Board President Joey Orr originally said, “This past year, the timing and the rates were such that it made perfect sense to pass a bond issue. We did so for the value of $14 million.”
She has amended that to say, “This past year, the timing and the rates were such that it made perfect sense to pass a bond issue. We did so for the value of $11.3 million.”
CULLMAN, Ala. – Cullman City Schools (CCS) in 2018 presented a five-year plan to the Alabama State Department of Education that includes:
- Systemwide additions and renovations in 2020 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $300,000
- Systemwide information technology in 2020 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $1 million
- Systemwide additions in 2023 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $500,000
- Systemwide new school in 2023 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $60 million
- Cullman City BOE (office) additions and renovations in 2020 . . . $1.8 million
- Cullman City BOE renovations in 2020 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $800,000
- Cullman City BOE electrical only in 2021 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $750,000
- (Cullman City BOE renovations in 2024 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $1 million; added in 2019)
- Cullman City Primary School land improvements in 2021 . . . . . . $2 million
- Cullman High School renovations in 2022 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $1 million
- East Elementary School renovations in 2022 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $750,000
- West Elementary School land improvements in 2020 . . . . . . . . . . $50,000
The most outstanding feature to most observers is a $60 million “new school” construction project proposed for 2023.
In June 2019, CCS drew up a plan for what it termed a Strategic Building Initiative, in which it states that, at a current .51% per year rate of growth, the system will have 3,366 students by 2023, compared to 3,203 (3,184 according to the state report card) in 2018-19.
Of the increasing number of students, the plan said: “Cullman City Primary, East Elementary, and West Elementary have consolidated auxiliary teaching spaces to accommodate growth. However, the current capacity is full and any enrollment growth will result in the need for modular rental units to serve as classrooms.”
Class size averages:
- Kindergarten – 18.25
- 1 – 18.9
- 2 – 18.9
- 3 – 20.7
- 4 – 22.9
- 5 – 23.6
- 6 – 26.8
A look at existing building debt in the plan showed a principal of $26,389,453 owed on system construction projects (not including interest), with payoff dates ranging from Sept. 2020 to two debts that will not be paid off until July 2042.
Concept plan includes new buildings, expansion of current facility.
Along with the plan documents, CCS also had a set of design concepts drawn up by the Birmingham/Huntsville architecture firm Goodwyn, Mills and Cawood, showing that the “new school” in the five-year plan could be two new school facilities and the major expansion of a third:
- An expanded Cullman City Primary School, with a new gym, cafeteria and kitchen. The addition will add 27,500 square feet to the current facility. Cost was estimated at $7,204,000.
- A new Cullman Intermediate School adjacent to the primary school, at the end of the road leading to the school, on property already owned by CCS. The design concept presents a two-story, 120,000 square foot building that will accommodate up to 1,000 students graces 2-5. Cost was estimated at $28.9 million.
- A new Cullman Middle School adjacent to the current middle school in the block between Second Avenue Northeast, Eighth Street Northeast and Oak Drive Northeast, to be built in two phases. The second phase will move across Eighth Street and involve demolition of most of the current middle school. After the completion of both phases, the single-story building will occupy 115,000 square feet and accommodate up to 800 students grades 6-8. Cost was estimated at $27.6 million.
The plans include a new road leading into and out of the joint primary/intermediate school site from the south, alleviating some of the current traffic congestion between the high school and primary school. The intermediate and expanded primary schools would allow the consolidation and closure of East and West Elementary Schools.
The estimated cost of all three facilities in the concept plan was $63,704,000.
“Option 2”
The design concept package includes an “Option 2” which would involve only additions and renovations to Cullman City Primary School. The concept would add 45,000 square feet to the facility and feature:
- New second-grade classrooms, relieving some of the current overcrowding at East and West Elementary Schools
- New cafeteria/kitchen
- New gymnasium
- Interior renovations to classrooms and media center
The total project budget was estimated to be $11.4 million.
Cullman City School Board President Joey Orr wrote to The Tribune about the system’s five-year plan:
“Each year in accordance with the 1995 Accountability law which requires a long-range capital plan for schools, as well as the requirements by the Alabama State Department of Education, our district completes a 5 Year Capital Plan. This plan is created in a meeting with attendees that are also lined out by the State Department. This team consists of a certified capital planner, the district superintendent, a local board member, community members, and school representatives. This group is tasked with looking at 3 information drivers to create these plans: student enrollment/demographic needs, existing facility/assessment data, and educational programming data. A needs list is then created with the most pressing needs of the district listed. All projects that are $50,000 or higher must be listed in the plan, even though the funding sources may be unknown at the time of the plan. The plan is created on the foreseeable needs of the district in those upcoming 5 years. This plan must be submitted to the state in September of each year for our district to be eligible to receive state capital funds. This 5-year plan is a dream list of things that we feel need to be done in the district. In a perfect world, the funding would be there and we would complete the entire list; however, in reality, it is not possible to get all these items completed. Keep in mind though that they have to be on the official plan and approved if we have any hopes of them being completed and funded.”
Orr also addressed developments in facilities in the last few years, as well as hopes for future upgrades:
“New buildings have been a goal and a plan since before I was even elected to the Board. We have made great strides in these past four years to make some of these dreams become a reality. We purchased the Hoehn Drive property next to the Primary School for two purposes. One was to have the ability to make another road into the Primary property. I know that was discussed even when I was teaching at the school 15 years ago. This has been on our district’s 5-year plan for quite some time, but it is costly and the land wasn’t available then. This road is needed for safety and also for congestion issues on Stadium Drive. The property was also purchased with hopes of one day building an intermediate school to house our 3rd through 5th graders. This building is our most distant plan.
“We have also met with a demographer to hear about the future growth of Cullman City and how this would affect the available space in our existing school buildings. We hired an outside group to complete a building assessment on all of our 6 buildings to see what kind of grading they would give each on safety, education space, and structures. After hearing from those sources as well as speaking with stakeholders, we knew there was a need. We have taken the initial steps to create plans for an addition to the primary school that would allow for 2nd grade to be housed at the Primary School. We love this idea since 2nd grade curriculum most closely links with primary instruction (K-2) than it does with the elementary curriculum. We also have created initial plans and ideas for a new building at the Middle School. This would allow us to move our 6th graders to the Middle School campus to create a 6th grade Academy there and also update that campus and facilities to make it a safer and more educationally sound.
“This past year, the timing and the rates were such that it made perfect sense to pass a bond issue. We did so for the value of $14 million. We have that money secured and can begin a smaller project. It will in no way build an entire building, but it can move us along in our 5-year plan and help us to check off some of those items. At this moment, we have not secured further funding for other projects. There had been discussions of other bonds that Governor Ivey may offer for schools, but it has not been discussed recently due to other more pressing issues.”
Funding for educational infrastructure has been a popular topic throughout Cullman’s 2020 Municipal Election campaigns. Candidates for the city council and school board have voiced support for facility improvements and even new construction, as well as cooperative efforts between the City and school board, but incumbents and challengers alike have steered away from talk of taxes.
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