School Board Moves Forward with Appeal and Funding for JCHS Baseball Stadium

Despite an unfavorable ruling regarding an ongoing lawsuit concerning the collapse of the roof at Jefferson County High School’s Building 8 and the associated costs to upgrade construction standards to meet current guidelines, the Jefferson County School Board unanimously decided to appeal the court’s decision. While a “ordinance of law of coverage” assertion has been utilized in areas outside of Tennessee there is no precedent inside the state. Jefferson County School Board Attorney Albert Harb, stated that be believes an appeal could be favorable because the Ordinance of law basis for suit had never been decided in the state of Tennessee and recommended that the Board take such action. A motion to appeal was offered by School Board Members Solomon and Potts, getting the nod of approval from all seven Board Members. Costs associated with the appeal were estimated by Harb to be around 1/3 of the already accumulated costs of the suit. No hard numbers were available on the current or projected costs. Later in the meeting an amendment was presented in the amount of $60,000 for legal services but did not separate billing for other areas of service that are not associated with the law suit but are a part of the incoming bills.

In other action, the Board addressed end of year budget amendments that were general housekeeping in nature. They also approved the used of the Jefferson County Fair Grounds for Carson-Newman University Boot Scoot on September 1, 2017, as well as membership dues for the Tennessee School Systems for Equity in the amount of $4500.

With a motion from Board Member Potts and 2nd from Board Member Cox, the Board unanimously approved using the Capital Outlay funds in the amount of $200,000 that are a part of the fiscal year 2017/18 budget for renovation on the Jefferson County High School Baseball Stadium and Seating. The Board also expressed its congratulations to the Jefferson County High School Baseball Team for their outstanding performance.

Under Old Business, the Board unanimously approved several Policy Changes for Review and Adoption on second reading.