With the school board wanting to go one direction, the county commission opted to go in several different directions when the two groups meet eye-to-eye this past week to discuss the future of DeKalb County Schools.

At the heart of the issue is whether the county commission will be onboard with the school board’s proposed building of a K-2 school on the Northside campus. Cripps revealed the school board has went forward with contracting the Upland Design, which has done the several concepts for schools here, to do a feasibility study to see if the new school would fit on the property. The school system is paying for the $40,000 feasibility study out of its own funds after the county commission, during their meeting last month, refused to give them the go ahead. The school system technically didn’t need the blessing of the commission and decided to press ahead with getting the Upland Design study.

Under the school board’s plan, Smithville Elementary would be closed and the new school set to serve its students. The cost of the new school is in the neighborhood of $20 million and it is hoped by supporters that it could be paid off in 10 years, thereby opening the door for the construction of a new high school once the K-2 is off the county’s books. The new school would hold up to 800 students.

During the face-to-face meeting this past week between Director of Schools Patrick Cripps and the 14 county commissioners, Cripps explained the board felt it needed to go ahead with the study so they would have something concrete to bring before the commission for funding.

While the commission, which includes several educators, agreed a school building program is a must, the exact course was up for debate, with several commissioners tossing about their own ideas and at least one questioning the motives of his fellow commissioners.

Jerry Adcock of the 5th District said he believes building two K-8 schools would be the best approach rather than doing little bits at a time. He suggested commissioners would were wanting to dive straight into a high school building project were doing it for self-promotion.

“You just want to have your name on a plaque at the new school,” Adcock accused, bringing murmurs from his fellow commissioners.

Cripps pumped the brakes on Adcock’s idea, noting it would be an expensive project that would tie up the county’s funds, some of which is needed to pay teachers.

“Our employee pay is below state average,” he revealed to the commission. “We lost 10 percent of our staff this year because of teachers leaving for better pay and benefits elsewhere and we will never keep up with communities around us in pay and benefits with the tax dollars we have right now if we sink everything into buildings”

Some commissioners disagreed with each other even though they represent the same district, Julie Young and Dennis Slager of the second district saying they had opposing viewpoints registered to them by their constituents, some wanting to go along with the school board plan and some wanting to go with the K-8 plan.

If the school board’s plan does fly and the K-2 gets built, Cripps said that the ultimate plan would be to eventually locate a new high school somewhere on the campus near Northside, thereby putting three schools all in that area. That would allow transportation all to come to one area for drop off and pick up and would allow for consolidated athletic fields all in one convenient location.

The commission plan to further hash out its various plans while the school board waits on the results of the Upland survey.