Thursday night’s Bedford County Board of Education meeting discussed the system’s purchase of the Tennessee College of Applied Technology facility on Madison Street.
This purchase …
This item is available in full to subscribers.
To continue reading, you will need to either log in to your subscriber account, or purchase a new subscription.
If you are a current print subscriber, you can set up a free website account and connect your subscription to it by clicking here.
If you are a digital subscriber with an active, online-only subscription then you already have an account here. Just reset your password if you've not yet logged in to your account on this new site.
Otherwise, click here to view your options for subscribing.
Please log in to continue |
Thursday night’s Bedford County Board of Education meeting discussed the system’s purchase of the Tennessee College of Applied Technology facility on Madison Street.
This purchase would most likely occur at the end of 2024, and according to Superintendent Tammy Garrett, the school system would lease the facility back to TCAT-S until they fully moved into the new U.S. 231 campus.
“This is one more step in the right direction we want to go,” said board chairman Michael Cook.
The building has been appraised at $5.1 million, so Garrett said they would use two grants — which total $2.2 million — toward the purchase. The difference would be budgeted, according to Garrett.
One of the grants used would be the Epidemiology and Laboratory Capacity (ELC) Grant, which the school system received to complete COVID-19 testing. Money left on this grant will go toward the purchase; however, the only requirement is they would need to reserve one room for COVID testing at the TCAT-S building.
Additional funding would come from ESSER 2.0. Both grants have been approved by the state for this purchase, Garrett explained.
Possible uses
The reason for this purchase stems from the school system’s growth and lack of space. Nothing has been officially determined, but according to communications director Carol Garrette, they are looking at possibly moving the maintenance department to the old TCAT facility as well as some CTE classes and the central office’s boardroom.
School board member Glen Forsee said, “Having sat in that room for 18 years, it was very crowded [Thursday] tonight — people in the hallway. And this new building will help alleviate that issue to give us space to do all of our business in a much more professional way.”
The maintenance department currently is located in a facility off Elm Street behind the King Museum. The current Central Office building on Madison Street is owned by the City of Shelbyville, according to Garrette. Plans for further uses of this building are undetermined, while challenges lie in the building’s lack of ADA compliance.
The next school board meeting will be March 16 at 6 p.m. at Central Office. A groundbreaking for Cartwright Elementary School will be 11 a.m. Feb. 21 at 1753 Fairfield Pike.
