The White County Board of Education balanced optimism for future projects with a commitment to fiscal responsibility at its monthly meeting on Thursday, April 24. Consequently, dreams of new tennis courts for the high school are alive but temporarily on hold as board members agreed to proceed cautiously.
And following an executive session to discuss Superintendent Laurie Burkett’s personnel recommendations, the board approved the hiring of Miles Kendall as the new White County High School boys’ basketball coach (Story on Page XX).
But the subject of most of the discussion Thursday night was around the proposed new tennis courts. Several options were outlined, from the basic construction of the courts and lighting to a larger redesign that would also address the high school’s front entrance and parking.
Cost estimates for those two projects ranged from $1.6 million to nearly $4 million. But Assistant Superintendent Jonathan Stribling, who provided the figures, added, “there’s also a third option, which is to hold off on the project.”
That’s the direction the board ultimately took, voting unanimously to delay the tennis courts project. Despite their enthusiasm for the project, members emphasized prudence.
“One of the most important jobs of a board is to be financially responsible, to never put our school system in a place where we can't pay our employees, and number one, where we can't give our students what they need in the classroom,” Board Chair Missy Jarrard said after the meeting had adjourned.
“We’ve got to protect our fund balance during these uncertain economic times,” she added. “We’ve got to be able to turn on the lights and put gas in the busses.
Recent SPLOST (Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax) collections, usually a steady and reliable source of project funding, dipped below the expected $600,000 monthly average recently. The lower-than-usual revenue is concerning.
“These local SPLOSTS have been so successful and so important, not just for us, but for schools all across the state,” Burkett noted after the meeting. “It’s probably the fairest tax that there is. But with our economy dipping and the drop in revenue, we need to be cautious. So, we’ll keep an eye on the trends.”
Jarrard recalled lean times in 2010, during a financial crisis, “when school systems, including White County, were looking to possibly borrow money to make payroll. That was a valuable learning experience. We realized we had to get our fund balance up and protect it."
Today, White County maintains a $1.6 million reserve, a critical safeguard that board members were determined to preserve. So, the board delayed the tennis court project until after the next SPLOST vote in 2026. In the meantime, a partnership with Truett McConnell University will allow White County teams to use nearby courts for their matches.