County School officials said they plan to dip into the fund balance to fix leaking roofs at several schools and to spend $120,000 for HVAC controls at Wolftever Elementary School.
The roofs will cost $1.6 million at Hunter Middle, $125,000 at Lookout Valley Middle/High, $900,000 at Soddy Middle, $400,000 at Tyner and $720,000 at Wallace A. Smith School.
Officials said, "In addition, we would like to complete the installation of the district-wide phone system and add 50 intercom or paging systems at schools where needed for additional school safety. The cost will be about $1.1 million.
"We also need to update our wireless infrastructure at an initial cost of $1.3 million of which we are only requesting $359,000 from fund balance. We should receive reimbursement of up to 80 percent through E-rate.
"We are requesting that $5,324,000 be approved from our fund balance to complete the above projects."
County Commissioner Greg Martin said the county school fund balance stands at $43.5 million. He said that is much more than similar-size Rutherford County, which is about $15 million.
He said the county school fund balance was at $15.4 million in 2007 and $23.9 million in 2012.
Commissioner Martin noted that school officials do not again want to get in the situation of running out of money and having to borrow from the county. He said perhaps the county could agree to loan the money without interest. He said, if that is not possible, perhaps the county could provide a project for the schools equal to the amount of the interest.