Weldon City Schools Interim Superintendent Rodney Shotwell delivered an upbeat message to county commissioners this morning after giving an update on the new middle school-high school for the system.
His scheduled update to the panel came on the heels of last week’s state board of education report that the sitting local board of education must respond to concerns of how it is running the affairs of the system or face possible loss of its authority.
“I have shared with the department (of state public instruction) that I would be more than willing to come in and oversee the financial pieces and parts of the project,” he said. “We do have a project manager, but ultimately I would like to be there until we get to the very end. And, actually, that was one of the assurances that they needed to hear.”
He told commissioners when he was asked why he went to Weldon, his reply was, “Immediately on the second day, when I went out to the schools for the first time — I’m here. Y’all captured my heart and my soul.”
He was scheduled this morning to do an opening convocation with the teachers in the system. “We’re doing lots of professional development. What I want to tell you is the board, myself, everyone in Weldon City is committed to doing what’s best for these kids.”
He said, “Y’all are going to see a major increase in what happens in Weldon City Schools this upcoming year because it’s not going to be just me — it’s going to be a concerted effort of the board, myself, the teachers. The expectations are going to be held very high.”
Board Chair Vernon Bryant said, “I certainly hope that last statement is accurate and I’ve got great expectations out of you and I’m confident about what you will do serving the boys and girls in the Weldon school district. Certainly, we look forward to you doing that as superintendent.”
Shotwell said he expects to stay in the school system through at least Christmas. “We’ll see what 2025 has in store.”
He thanked the commissioners for submitting the $12 million supplemental grant for the new school project. “In essence, we’re building a $62 million building and the taxpayers are paying $3.1 million for it.”
He said the system is in the very early stages of the project. “After getting notice of the supplemental money, we now know we can build the entire school. That was one of the big pieces we had going on. We weren’t sure if we didn’t get it, based on that estimate, that we were going to be able to do the project at all. I was very pleased to get that call from the state superintendent.”
The school system opened its bid package two weeks ago. “Interestingly, most of the trades came in under budget,” Shotwell said.
He said HVAC came in $703,300 less, plumbing was $30,000 less, demolition was $195,000 less, steel came in $583,000 under budget, and fire protection was $130,000 under budget. “We’re working through this and we want you to understand we’re going to give the very best attention to the taxpayer dollars that we have.”
Meanwhile the board approved an administrative agreement that reflects the addition of the $12 million supplemental grant with an additional $600,000 in county matching funds.
This means the total funds available for the project are $65,100,399, consisting of $62 million in state funds and $3,110,399 in county matching funds.
