The board approved a change order to refinish and seal the Lenoir City High School gymnasium roof. Paving projects will be completed at LCHS and Lenoir City Intermediate/Middle School.

The school system posted a survey to determine where students and parents would like to see Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief dollars spent. Barker said she is also using the survey to learn what needs attention at the high school. Barker said she will soon present a plan to update common-area restrooms at LCHS.

“We want to update (the cafeteria dining area) so it looks more like a café,” she said. “There’s also some countertops for students who want to stand, or we have some high top stools that they could use. … One of the big issues that we want to address is that students have the opportunities to wash their hands more frequently, so by turning the commons bathrooms around where they actually open into the commons area, the hand washing areas will be fully accessible without a student having to go all the way into the bathrooms.”

Barker referenced the impact of a reduction in tax funds from the county.

Loudon County Commission voted July 6 to approve the upcoming fiscal year budget, which included a 2.5% decrease in the Adequate Facilities Tax funding designated to city schools.

“I know there’s been a lot of controversy, and I’ve been named in that quite a bit recently with the county commission over their latest decision to reduce the amount of adequate facilities funds coming into Lenoir City,” Barker said. “And as you can see, I just talked about how many facilities upgrades we have planned and need to do. We need to do more, and we have more on the books when we have the funds to accomplish them. I just want to publicly express my sadness that they didn’t see fit to make that change at their last county commission meeting.”

She promised efforts to convince commissioners to reverse the decision.

“I would like to … thank all the administration and staff that came out (July 6) to show their support for the schools for the county commission,” Matthew Coleman, board chairman, said. “Lenoir City residents, families inside Lenoir City and around Lenoir City are the ones paying that tax, and Lenoir City school systems are supporting 31% of the students in the county, yet the county commission cut the funding. … I’d also like to thank the county commissioners who stood up in support of Lenoir City residents as well as Lenoir City Schools, specifically Matthew Tinker, Julia Hurley and (Harold) Duff.”

Barker said the decrease directly impacts the ability to upgrade facilities and equipment.

“The recommendation was to reduce it by 2.5% for each of the next four years,” Barker said. “They passed to go ahead and reduce us 2.5% for the coming year. The number that they were throwing out was $4,600 (decrease in funding), but that’s not accurate. It’s more like six or seven times that. It’s well over $30,000, which is a decrease.

“It’s not good for us coming down the pike and all the building that’s going on in Lenoir City, those dollars were going to go to us … and those dollars were supposed to go to these projects like those that I just talked about,” she added.