Audio clip
School board meeting
The Hamilton County Board of Education on Thursday voted 6-3 to spend $90,000 to get rid of asbestos in a vacant building next to Calvin Donaldson Elementary.
The move comes after the board voted 4-4 against the measure at last month’s meeting; member Chip Baker was absent.
Once the asbestos is removed from the building, Volkswagen and other companies have pledged to spend more than $100,000 to turn it into an LEED certified environmental science lab.
“I’m so glad they approved it. Our kids need that older side of the building, they need more laboratories,” said Danielle Bonner, president of the school’s parent-teacher association.
Board members Jeffrey Wilson and George Ricks, who both voted for the abatement both times it came to a vote, said St. Elmo residents were eager to volunteer in the school once the renovation project began.
Mike Fulbright, pastor of The Well Seventh-day Adventist Church, regularly brought nearly 30 volunteers to Calvin Donaldson last school year. He and several members of his congregation came to Thursday’s meeting to show their support for the school.
“The reason we care is because it’s a place we’ve invested. It’s an investment in the value of these kids,” he said. “I sense a vision there, an increased sense of morale, of what could be that isn’t yet.”
Right before the vote, board member Rhonda Thurman mentioned that there were still 50 schools in use in Hamilton County that had asbestos. Before removing the material from an empty building, the board should consider work on facilities that house students, she said.
Gary Waters, the school system’s associate superintendent for auxiliary services, said the danger of asbestos is when the material is dislodged, as it would be in a renovation of the Calvin Donaldson building.
“The presence of asbestos is not an issue. Unless it’s disturbed ... it is not a cause for concern,” he said.
HOW THEY VOTED
* Chip Baker: yes
* Chester Bankston: no
* Janice Boydston: yes
* Everett Fairchild: yes
* Linda Mosley: yes
* George Ricks: yes
* Rhonda Thurman: no
* Jeffrey Wilson: yes
* Kenny Smith: no
Kelli Gauthier covers K-12 education in Hamilton County for the Times Free Press. She started at the paper as an intern in 2006, crisscrossing the region writing feature stories from Pikeville, Tenn., to Lafayette, Ga. She also covered crime and courts before taking over the education beat in 2007. A native of Frederick, Md., Kelli came south to attend Southern Adventist University in Collegedale, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in print journalism. Before newspapers, ...
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