The Oktibbeha County Board of Supervisors discussed a deal that could see the Starkville-Oktibbeha Consolidated School District in a new administrative headquarters on Lynn Lane during their meeting on Monday.
The board discussed assessing other properties owned by the school district, but have not received assessments. The current property on Lynn Lane is assessed at $2 million but owners are asking for $2.25 million.
President of the Oktibbeha County Board of Supervisors Orlando Trainer thinks it would be best to break up the different properties when addressing them.
"Instead of dealing with a domino effect, we can just deal with each item one by one," Trainer said.
District 5 Supervisor Joe Williams said he is most concerned about the timeline of the repairs on the buildings. He said once he knows the timeline on the repairs, he will move on to further discussion.
District 4 Supervisor Bricklee Miller said the county is only responsible by law for providing the administrative office of the superintendent. Miller said because the school district is consolidated, the county may not be solely responsible for this deal.
"That's all the county is responsible for," Miller said. "That's my concern is that the county has done what they are supposed to as far as supplying them with not just adequate building space, but very nice building space."
Trainer said the board should look at it from different perspectives because the superintendent represents the board in other facets. He said if the board purchased the building, the school district would be responsible for everything associated with the building.
"If we need to get some paperwork to justify that I'm sure that's not a problem," Trainer said. "I'm compelled to do whatever I can to assist him."
Both Miller and District 1 Supervisor John Montgomery agreed if these funds were going directly to the children in the education system, they would be for this agreement, but it is just for the administrative office.
Montgomery said he understands why the proposal is being brought to the board, but he said in the current financial status, there are other issues the county should focus on at this time.
"There's things that we want, and there's things that we need," Montgomery said. "I don't think we can afford this."
Montgomery said one of his qualms for this discussion is if the school district is in need of the building, why have they not invested money.
He said he is also upset with how they have taken care of their current properties and how they expect the county to bail them out due to their carelessness.
"They've allowed these buildings to degrade to the point that they are at, now we're the board that their coming to, to be the great savior," Montgomery said. "There needs to be some consideration in that."
The board did not take any action during their meeting on Monday.