Despite the bad winter weather that has held up construction, the contractor for the new classroom and auditorium wing at Sweetwater Elementary School still thinks the classroom portion of the project will be done by August.

The Sweetwater Board of Education reviewed the new proposed timeline for the project during Monday night's March School Board meeting. The contractor, Mid-State Construction, believes the classrooms will be done, but work will still be ongoing for the new auditorium when classes begin in August.

The entire project should be completed by the end of September, according to the current projected timeline.
During the meeting, the School Board voted to spend about another $38,000 on the nearly $3 million project to better prepare the classroom portion of the new wing to support a second floor in the future if needed.

The school system is not expecting explosive enrollment growth in the immediate future.
Administrators are expecting the smallest kindergarten class since 2003 this fall. But school officials say it's difficult to predict enrollment and the enrollment numbers could go up if the economy improves.
Board member Dr. John Fox thought it would be better to spend the money now instead of a lot more later if and when a second floor is needed.

"Ten years from now, $38,000 wouldn't touch it," he said. "We will be doing the next board a favor."
About $48,000 will still be left in the contingency fund for the SES project.
Like other school systems around the state, Director of Schools Dr. Keith Hickey said the school system is looking at cutting out teaching positions for next school year.
"It looks like a net loss of three to four positions," Hickey said Wednesday.  I don't know yet whether the cuts will result in actual job losses, but that is likely."

Hickey said the cuts are a combination of budget issues and enrollment numbers.  
"Our enrollment has dropped slightly the last couple of years.  Additionally, the bigger classes are beginning to move into upper grades where we can have larger pupil/teacher ratios, thereby reducing the number of teachers needed. Some years we have been able to keep an extra position or two beyond state requirements to keep class sizes down, but due to fiscal restraints that is a luxury we no longer have," the longtime city school system director said.

During the Monday meeting, Coordinated School Health Coordinator Donna Canada and P.E. teacher Carmen Brewster demonstrated a new P.E. program called Hot Sports.
It is a very interactive program that students watch on a big screen, then dance and hop to the instructions.  Canada said the city system is the first in the state to get the new P.E. program.
The Sweetwater Board of Education meets at 7 p.m. on the second Monday of the month at City Hall.

tommy.millsaps@advocateanddemocrat.com | 337-7101