This was the second of three meetings commissioners have had with the county’s three school systems. They met with Halifax County Schools earlier this month and will meet with Weldon City Schools next month.

Robbie Clements, director of facilities and operations for the school system, said the most recent issues to come up at the high school are repair of steps at the senior building and addressing stairwell humidity issues. Those two issues are estimated to cost a total of $70,000.

There are a total of $1,303,000 in capital needs at the high school, he said.

Included in those other needs are replacement of heating and air controls, auditorium fly loft concrete moulding repairs, north end senior building classroom repairs, math and science building chiller overhaul, addressing water intrusion issues and senior building fly loft repair.

The top priorities at Belmont are a chiller rebuild and dehumidifier installation and repair, those projects topping out at $275,000. There are a total of $550,000 in capital needs at Belmont.

Chaloner has $65,000 in capital needs among two projects — repair settled concrete floor in seventh grade and replace rubber mats on seventh grade ramps.

Clara Hearne has $37,000 in capital needs with recently emerging parking lot repairs ranked at top. The parking lot repairs come in at $15,000.

At Manning, where the meeting was held, track repair is needed and the cost is estimated to be $150,000. “It’s in terrible shape,” Clements said.

The maintenance building has about $90,000 in capital needs with parking lot repairs highlighted as the most recent issue to come up. Estimated cost is $15,000.

Central office needs are at $138,000, with boardroom repair shown as the top priority and an estimated price tag of $15,000.

In total there are $2,333,000 in total capital needs for the 2018-2019 fiscal year.

That number is subject to change, Clements said, once he surveys principals on what their needs may be in the upcoming fiscal year.

He told Commissioner Carolyn Johnson he could not say with certainty how much the requests made by principals would add to the capital needs. “We have a lot of issues at the high school. I don’t foresee any big ticket items.”

Clements and school Superintendent Dain Butler said following the meeting they don’t expect the requests to significantly increase what was presented at the meeting.

“We’ve been good stewards with our lottery funds,” Chief Finance Officer Andrea Midgette told the boards.

She said the school system will be repaying $200,000 from lottery funds towards the Manning debt annually.

“I think you’ve done a good job handling money,” Commissioner Linda Brewer said. “Thank you for the hard work you do.”  

Meanwhile, discussion during the meeting turned to school security, which Commissioner Patrick Qualls said is an issue which will not only have to be addressed within the Roanoke Rapids system, but the other school systems in the county.

During the current fiscal year, Roanoke Rapids has added additional cameras at Belmont and Chaloner, spending $10,000 for each school

Additional cameras are included in the 2018-2019 capital outlay requests for the high school and Clara Hearne.

All schools except the high school have a buzz-in system, Clements said. “We have a tremendous amount of cameras in the district.”

Qualls said additional security measures is something which will have to be discussed.

“It’s sad we have to turn our schools into prisons,” Commissioner Marcelle smith said. “(Security) is high on my list.”

Qualls said afterward it’s an issue which has to be discussed “for future planning. There’s a lot of technology out there."