Lee school officials discuss future construction

PRATTVILLE — Two construction projects at Beauregard High School were discussed as the Lee County Board of Education spent Saturday trying to prioritize short, medium and long-range plans for areas throughout the school system.

“I was well pleased that all board members contributed their thoughts and ideas on, first of all, concerns in their district,” said Dr. Stephen Nowlin, superintendent. “But, I think all the board members tried to see the needs of the whole district, too.

“The Lee County board really seems to be concerned about doing the right thing, the best thing overall, so we had a lot of great discussion.”

After the all-day meeting at the Robert Trent Jones Capitol Hill Conference Center, Nowlin said he thinks he has a better sense of the board’s priorities, which will help him develop a better game plan for the future.

“We did a lot of brainstorming today, so we will try to come up with a plan for the near term which we will bring up at the next two board meetings.

“Any long-term planning will be difficult to do in today’s economic environment.”

While two buildings on the agenda were the library addition and auditorium at
Beauregard High School, a third building came up for discussion.

Larry Boswell, board vice president, said “We still want to do the Beauregard library. We still want to do the auditorium. But in my opinion, our first priority should be the central office to get all his (the superintendent’s) staff in a central location to continue the improvements he has started.

Boswell said he would like to see the board do both the central office as well as the library addition at the same time.

The board’s next meeting is planned for Monday, Aug. 3, at the Loachapoka Elementary School.