Fate of a new Gordon Lee High School is in the voters' hands

The referendum

Shall the City of Chickamauga issue general obligation bonds in an aggregate principal amount not to exceed $2,500,000 to pay the cost, in whole or in part, of (i) providing the funds necessary for demolition, site work and upgrades in conjunction with the construction and equipping of a new high school which will replace the existing school in the City of Chickamauga, and (ii) paying the expenses incident thereto?

CHICKAMAUGA, Ga. - Residents won't see a rebuilt Gordon Lee High School unless they approve a loan in two weeks.

The Chickamauga City School Board held a public meeting Tuesday evening to explain why they are asking voters to approve a $2.5 million bond issue May 24. Superintendent Melody Day said the school system is scheduled to receive about $12 million from the Georgia Department of Education to rebuild the 86-year-old high school.

As part of the deal, the school system itself would set aside about five years' worth of sales tax revenue, which Day said would come out to about $3.9 million. The school board is prepared to do that, but they need extra money to one day demolish the current school building, abate asbestos and pave a new parking lot.

Day said the school system doesn't know exactly how much those three things will cost, just that the state government will not fund that element of the process. In the May 24 vote, residents will decide whether to approve up to $2.5 million worth of bonds.

The school system would need to pay this money back within 15 years.

If voters don't approve the loan, construction of the building would have to be delayed at least one year. In that time, Day said, the price for building a new high school would cost an extra $1 million. The school board would have to absorb that cost - not the state government.

"It's either now," she said, "or we don't do it. We won't mention it again. It'll be done."

School Board Chairman Corky Jewell told a group of about 100 people inside the high school's gym that he can think of a couple ways the system will be able to pay that long-term loan back.

First, the school board can count on a boost in funding from some of the city's old money. For years, the school system has received annual payments from the trusts of the Flintstone-based Yates Bleachery and Gordon Lee, the former U.S. representative for whom the school is named.

Lee, whose family members moved to Chickamauga in the 1840s and established themselves in the agriculture industry, set aside money for the construction of a school and the hiring of a staff when he died in the 1920s. He also set up a trust for annual payments to the school system, as did Yates Bleachery many years later.

At the end of last year, Jewell said, administrators for both trusts decided to become charitable foundations, which must distribute 5 percent of their market value every year - boosting annual payments to the school system from about $120,000 to about $300,000.

Day said a new building, which would sit right in front of the current building, is important because the high school's infrastructure is outdated. Some of the pipes are made of clay - and too narrow. Clogging is common.

Jewell said the new building would also mean bigger classrooms, more powerful technology and tighter security.

"We feel like we can do this without putting a burden on the taxpayers," Jewell said. "We get free money to build the school to begin with, and essentially we're going to get free money to finish the school. We feel like this is the thing we have to do to provide the students today and in the future with the best facilities that we can."

Contact staff writer Tyler Jett at tjett@timesfreepress.com or at 423-757-6476.

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