Guilford County Schools Superintendent Terry Grier clears up the confusion surrounding Commissioner Linda Shaw’s claim that GCS would get $42 million in insurance money to rebuild Eastern Guilford High School.
Grier told the school board at tonight’s meeting that he talked to Insurance Commissioner Jim Long, who told Grier that the figure floated during a conversation with Shaw’s husband, former state Sen. Bob Shaw, was an example, not the actual amount GCS would receive. Long also confirmed that the system would be lucky to get the building’s appraised $16 million value.
This certainly doesn’t change the fact no one, not the county commissioners, not the school board, knows how the new Eastern Guilford will be funded. Commissioner Kirk Perkins’ substitute motion didn’t obligate the $31 million in leftover bond money, but it didn’t take it off the table, either. Fellow Commissioner Skip Alston, the loudest proponent of using the bond money, went along with the motion, which tells me he thinks it’s still on the table. But Alston might be surprised to hear that the school board is under the assumption that it is off the table. That takes a pretty big chunk out of the funding Alston said was already available to begin construction.
Grier again raised the possibility of placing Eastern on the November bond referendum, the move favored from the start by Chairman Alan Duncan, who was not present at tonight’s meeting. That’s riskier than, say, putting the new county jail on a bond referendum, given the public’s displeasure with the way the 2003 bond funds have been handled. But nothing was done, probably due to Duncan’s absence, not to mention that of fellow members Deena Hayes and Walter Childs.
Again, anyone with ties to Eastern Guilford should be concerned.
