The Daily Herald
Less than a year after residents in Maury County voted to approve a sales tax increase, Maury County Public Schools shuttered a historic elementary school and is now struggling to secure funding to build more schools.
Because of continued high growth in schools and aging school buildings, the Maury County Commission is now considering a 7.23% property tax increase in order to pay for the mounting needs in MCPS, including new schools, renovations and even funding for daily operations.
Commissioners are set to discuss and vote on the proposed increase during a budget committee meeting on July 12 before it reaches the full commission.
The Daily Herald
The Maury County Budget Committee has taken the county government’s operating budget under consideration for the coming fiscal year, reviewing major upcoming projects including a plan to build a new high school in Spring Hill.
“Every department is now under consideration,” Committee Chairman Scott Sumners told The Daily Herald following the county s initial review of the budget last week.
“I am a little concerned about the deficit that we will have with the debt on the general fund. I think we are going to be OK. I am concerned about it.”
As the budget continues to be drafted, the chairman said he could not share exactly how large the deficit would be.
Hard to say goodbye
During her visit to the campus last week, she returned to the school s playground where she remembered being terrified to climb the steel jungle gym, which still stands today. She recalled that instead of hesitating, she climbed the bars and carried herself across the tall threshold, proving herself to her fellow classmates.
“I felt something come over me,” Ogilvie-McClain said. “I am at the end of this road, and I don’t want it to end. My heart does not want to say goodbye. I think back over the years, so many of our friends have gone but God had left me for a purpose. They can never replace this building.”
The Daily Herald
Maury County Board of Education Chairman Michael Fulbright has successfully led a charge to put a temporary hold on the sale of Columbia’s historic McDowell Elementary School.
The board, which declared the property as surplus during this month s regular meeting on Tuesday, mostly agreed with the chair s proposal by voting in approval of holding off on selling the property until August.
Board member Austin Hooper cast the sole dissenting vote on the motion to postpone the sale, while Marlina Ervin cast the sole vote in opposition of declaring the property as surplus.
Fulbright plans to hold a meeting with Maury County Mayor Andy Ogles, Columbia Mayor Chaz Molder and Maury County Commission Chair Don Morrow to consider potential options for the property.