BOE votes to not fund proposed CCHS Indoor practice facility at this time

‘Doomsday is coming, we have seen it (budget), and it’s not pretty’- BOE Chairman Jeffrey Miller

By Charlotte Underwood

JACKSBORO, TN (WLAF)- Campbell County Board of Education members voted to not fund the proposed Campbell County High School indoor practice facility at this time “due to budget uncertainty and shortfalls” on the recommendation of interim school director Nancy Lay. Board members were split in a 6 to 4 vote on the issue with board members, Brandon Johnson, Randy Heatherly, Sharon Ridenour and Brent Lester voting against taking Lay’s recommendation. The low bid out of the five bids for the project was $2.2 million.

BOE member Brent Lester said the project had been “promised to the kids” and that the board had set $1.1 million back for the project.”

“These dollars are not coming out of reoccurring for budgets, we used some monies last year out of the fund balance and we got letters from the state advising us to not do that again, so how would this be held up to budgetary restraints is my question,” Lester said,

 County Finance Director Eric Pearson pointed out that the low bid was $2.2 million, and the district only had $1.1 million set aside for the project.

Lester asked what the fund balance was. Pearson said that it was projected to be a little over $10 million by the end of the year.

“But as the director said, you are facing significant challenges for next year’s budget,” Pearson said. He also said the district might have to use over $3 million of the fund balance to balance next year’s budget or adopt a budget that reduces appropriations to a level that you don’t have to use fund balance … you won’t be able to decide that until you see the budget,” Pearson said. He added that the fund balance will go down if the district does not make reductions in the budget.

Brandon Johnson wanted to table the decision until the board had a better understanding of the budget.

“My standpoint on this, academics always come first period … in the same token, we have promised some type of complex, etc. to Campbell County High School which sees 94 or so percent of Campbell County residents and we need to make good on our promises to not just CCHS but to every school in our district, so my recommendation is, one we don’t need to touch the fund balance to balance our budget. We see enrollment in rural communities losing students, so we can’t anticipate gaining students, but I think making a decision on this right now is hasty and I would like to see us table this until we are able to figure out what our budget for this year looks like and we have a whole picture of where our financial standing is,” Johnson said.

Randy Heatherly said he had been on board for four years and this commitment to build an indoor facility was made three years ago. He also pointed out that initially $1.7 million had been set aside, but that around $600,000 had been used to fix the foundation of the weight room at the high school.

“I do think we made a commitment to do it and we have enough money to do it and I think when it is all said and done we will. I just want to make it really clear, the kids of Campbell County, the faculty of Campbell County, the coaches will all benefit from this. I will never support backing out of a commitment. I support this and have from the very beginning, and I hope this board will see this through. We made big spends at Jellico High School, we spent funds on the weight building, we need tennis courts at CCHS, and I would like to see them happen with this project,” Heatherly said.

Johnson said the “community was losing faith in the board.”

“They are losing faith in us because we promise something and then we take it away and this board has been doing that since before I started serving here and since before many of you started serving on the board, but we have to stop that,” He reiterated that he would like to “lay the decision on the table until a better understanding of the budget was reached”.

Chairman Miller pointed out that would require another bid process as the bids would expire March 23^rd.

Jamie Wheeler pointed out that the CCHS baseball field had a lighting situation and that the high school also needed new bleachers in the gym that were over 20 years old. She also said the track needed maintenance and that it had not been maintained in 10 years.

“In looking at a lot of things, we need to upgrade our facilities, I feel like we need to do those upgrades before we start construction on something new,” Wheeler said.

“We have tremendous athletes …I agree, I think our facilities need upgraded. I am not against this building … but when we have other facilities for other students that are lacking, I think we need to concentrate on that and follow through with it,” Lisa Fields said. She also said the high school needed tennis courts.

A permanent solution for lights at the baseball field would cost around $300,000, but the district is looking at having one light pole upgraded to LED lights in-house at a cost of around $5,000. Replacing the bleachers at the high school will cost around $500,000. Johnson said the soccer field needed lights as well.

Chairman Miller reminded the board that the question before them at hand was could the board afford to pay another $1.1 million for the sports complex. He asked for a motion to approve or not approve the director’s recommendation. Fields made the motion to accept the recommendation of the director to not move forward with taking action on bids for the sports complex and Wheeler seconded that motion.

Johnson asked to “let the record reflect” that he would like to see the board reconsider the sports complex after the board knows what the budget will look like.

“Just to be clear to the public, the board has not had a single budget meeting for next year and not a single discussion … the board members, we don’t know,” Johnson said.

“Oh, we will, Doomsday is coming, we have seen it, and it’s not pretty,” Chairman Miller said.

During the board chairman comments section, before discussion on the sports complex took place, Miller told board members he and Ms. Lay had been working on the budget and that unfortunately the district was in another deficit year that looks to be about $2.9 million.

“There are some hard days ahead, I’m not going to lie, and we are kind of doing the best we can to present a rough draft to the board probably around the first of April,” Miller said, adding that budget talks would begin after spring break. (WLAF NEWS PUBLISHED-03/12/2026-6AM)