The County School Board on Thursday approved hiring an architect to design a new Tyner High/Middle School to replace the current dilapidated schools.
Conditions at Tyner are so bad that students walked out in protest on Wednesday.
That came after a section of one of the Tyner buildings partially collapsed.
Deputy Supt. Justin Robertson said officials plan to have the new Tyner school open by August 2024. To wait any longer would mean the schools could not utilize $25 million in ESSER (COVID) funds toward the project.
He said the schools are looking into a possible agreement with the city to place the new building behind the current Tyner where ball fields are now located. Dr. Robertson said after the new school is ready that the ball fields could go where the Tyner schools are now located.
Dr. Robertson said both Tyner High and Tyner Middle would be torn down. He said they were listed as the schools in the second worst condition in the system in the MGT report. CSLA was the worst.
He said there would be separate wings for the high school and middle school.
Dr. Robertson said students are going to be allowed back into portions of the building that had a partial collapse. He said structural engineers said it was safe to do so. Students will not be near the partially collapsed section.
Board members Marco Perez and Tucker McClendon praised the students for the walkout.
Mr. Perez said, "If there is something we should be angry about, it is these buildings. Students deserve to be in buildings that are not falling apart and that are not dangerous."
He said, "With a building that starts crumbling, it can happen when students are inside. As a community we cannot accept this."
Mr. McClendon said, "I am ashamed of the condition of many of our schools. We have kids going to school in condemned buildings."
He said of the Tyner students, "Yeah, they're fed up. I'm fed up. I hope this Tyner situation is a wake up call."
The board also approved up to seven days of paid COVID leave for teachers so they will not have to dip into their sick leave in cases where they have to go into quarantine.
The initial motion was for five days, but Mr. McClendon made a motion for seven.
On the motion of board member Jenny Hill, the leave will also apply in cases when the minor child of a teacher is quarantined and the teacher needs to be home with the child.