Lakeland still at odds on funding for school

Some residents still upset about situation

If all goes well, Lakeland School System Superintendent Ted Horrell says the city’s new middle school should be ready to welcome its first students in the fall of 2018.

Horrell discussed the timetable for the planned campus near Canada Road and U.S. 70 in the wake of approval by city commissioners on July 21 for issuing capital outlay notes of up to $20 million to fund the project.

Mayor Wyatt Bunker said he hopes the school will be ready in a couple of years, but Horrell said fall 2018 is the date he’s using for a projected opening.

Whenever the doors open, and if they open, it will be the second school in the city’s municipal school district. Lakeland Elementary, about five minutes away at 10050 Oak Seed Lane, is presently the only school; high school students attend Arlington High.

Plans for the school have been contentious, with a proposed 6-12 school touted by the city scuttled by the sound defeat in April of a bond referendum to fund it. After the defeat, the city turned to an alternative plan for a middle school funded as a capital outlay, which isn’t subject to voter approval as a bond issue would be.

Many in the city remain bitter about what they see as a way to circumvent the will of voters, and they’re writing letters and sending petitions expressing their objections to state officials who must approve the expenditure.

But Bunker and the majority of commissioners who voted in favor of the capital outlay last week say the city needs the school and the capital outlay approach is a way to do it that will position the city financially for future needs.

“The 12-year capital outlay saves $12 million” over 20- or 30year bonds, Wyatt said. “Doing it this way, we position ourselves to not need another tax increase.”

Commissioners in June approved a 55-cent tax hike, with the additional tax dedicated to paying for the middle school. Bunker says existing revenue will allow the city to retire the middle school debt before it builds a high school, which will be necessary eventually.

He said this plan also allows the city to begin considering bringing fire services in-house with current revenue, rather than contracting with Shelby County for fire protection. At the same meeting last week at which commissioners approved the capital outlay for schools, they heard a presentation on beginning a fire department.