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Wlaf1450‘It’s not a jumbotron. It’s a video board’- CCHS Principal Ben Foust
By Charlotte Underwood
JACKSBORO, TN (WLAF)- The Campbell County Board of Education Athletic Committee met on Tuesday afternoon to discuss a proposed “video board” in the works for Campbell County High School.
Athletic Committee Chairman Brandon Johnson started the meeting, saying the purpose of it was to “discuss and find out information about the jumbotron at Campbell County High School” and that the meeting had been requested by BOE Chairman Jeffrey Miller. Johnson then turned the meeting over to Campbell County High School Principal Ben Foust who was asked to address the committee on details about the “idea, the process and the funding sources.”
Foust said the meeting had been “called last minute and he was not prepared for it”, and that no one had told him what the agenda was other than a “jumbotron.”
“We are not getting a jumbotron, a jumbotron is multimillion dollar like you would see at UT, this is a very nice video board that we are hoping to do some community involvement with,” Foust said. He also added that he did not understand why this was being brought up in an athletic committee meeting since it was not a score board.
“We already have a score board, this is a facility upgrade, why we are having an athletic committee meeting I don’t understand, but again nobody is communicating with me on those things. But, again, this is not a jumbotron,” Foust said.
Johnson said he had let Foust know about the meeting as soon as possible, which was last Thursday.
“I still didn’t receive an agenda, Gail (Gail Parks, BOE Secretary) called and somebody said hey, we’re talking about the jumbotron, first of all, again, a jumbotron is not what this is, it’s a video board and we are wanting to have more family involvement and I think you can talk to any principal in the county and they all want that,” Foust said.
He said the video board would be used for movie nights, community events and multiple other events.
“We want to be able to bring it up there for Fields of Faith, a video board will do just like you can with an HDMI board, you can plug it up and play movies, show power points, do multiple things. We want to have guest speakers and invite the community out to have somewhere for them to be, for things to do. I was approached by the county commission several months ago about coming up with some ideas about what we can do, it’s not like I said hey, we want to go out and do this, they approached me, I went down there and pitched this idea, they thought it was a great idea, we’re moving forward. I do want to say I talked to Jeffrey Miller after the last board meeting and told him what I wanted to do, he did say, as long as you are not asking for funds from us, we do not need to do anything. I’ve not asked you for a dime and I don’t plan on it, I’ve done some fundraising. In the past five years that I have been at Campbell County High School I have raised $300,000 through grants, I very seldom ask you all for anything. I’ve redone our library floors; we’ve worked really really hard updating our school on our own without coming and asking you guys for much. So, again, this is not for you all to fund, you know, the county commission asked me to come and pitch something, and I did that and now I am in front of you all,” Foust said, adding he could answer any questions they had.
Johnson said that Chairman Miller directed it to the athletic committee meeting because it was going to be at the football field.
Johnson asked county finance director Eric Pearson whether or not the purchase would have to go through the BOE.
“Mr. Pearson, if I may put you on the spot, Chairman Miller also felt confident that before any purchases like this could be made it would have to go through the Board of Education for our approval for the school to make the purchase,” Johnson said.
“That’s our understanding,” Pearson said.
“So, we will have to at some point, the board, and this committee as a starting point, is going to have to approve that purchase regardless of if the funds have been raised or not,” Johnson told Foust.
“So, is this our policy moving forward, anything that we fundraise for, we have to go though a committee and board approval before we can get it done?” Foust asked.
Johnson said it was his understanding that it was because of the dollar threshold on this type of purchase.
Foust said that all school principals should be made aware of what those thresholds are.
Finance Director Eric Pearson said for competitive bid, the threshold was for $25,000.
Johnson asked Mrs. Crumley (Suzanne Crumley, Materials and Testing Supervisor) to “relay to Director of Schools Jennifer Fields that we need to make sure all of our school principals have a copy of the purchasing policy and what those thresholds are.”
Johnson asked committee members if they had any other questions.
Foust said the ultimate goal would be to have a “double sided video board.”
“Our ultimate goal would be to have a drive up side of it too, so where if we had a movie night, we could have kids on the lawn and also parents and grandparents who could stay in the car, but that’s going to double the price, but that’s outside of what we are talking about right now and we’re still looking at more fundraising and a possibility we could do if that is of interest,” Foust said.
Athletic committee member Randy Heatherly asked the size of the video board how much funding had been raised.
Foust said the video board would be 24×12 foot and that $60,000 had been raised through “private donations.”
“The county’s recreational committee voted for $60,000 but that has not gone through yet, that’s why I’m here I guess, so right now, we are at $120,000. The way the company that we are working with, Power Ad, when you commit to them, they go in and do marketing and get committed funds from corporations and mom and pop businesses, and a percentage goes to pay the board off and a percentage goes back into the school system and we are way past the threshold they asked us to get, if the commission votes to move forward with the idea,” Foust said.
Johnson said he thought having a video board would be great, but to be transparent, he did have some concerns about the funding.
Foust asked what concerns?
“From what I understand, the county commission is looking to utilize some of the opioid abatement funds,” Johnson said
“It’s not the core grant,” Foust responded quickly.
“I don’t know the context of what funds are going to be used; I am not sure if opioid abatement funds are the best use on a video board personally, but also, I have a bit of a conundrum, you know if someone shows up with it legally fundraised and says hey we want to give you $100,000, should this board and our school system turn it down? I don’t know the answer to that,” Johnson said.
“I look at it like the same thing you got at your business; you got a video board out there and what you want to do is attract people, you want them to know the services that you provide, it’s your business. With something like this, yes, we can have movie nights, but we can promote good things like mental health, whether it is opioid, we can promote that with this video board, at football games, at the little league games. We can have the messages we want to put out as a school system, messages that we want to see,” Foust said.
Johnson said he hears in the community that people are all the time saying there is nothing to do here for the kids and that’s why young individuals look to experience drugs.
“I think adding something like this could have a huge impact on the community. Before we wrap up, I want to commend you and your athletic directors for going out there and thinking outside the box, even if we may disagree on some ways of how to get to this final goal, I think this final goal of having a vide board and doing what you want to do, not just build things at Campbell County High School, but build opportunities for the entire community, I think that is really valuable,” Johnson said.
Foust said he took full responsibility for not following procedures and that he “would figure that out.”
“I did talk to a board member, I want to be very transparent, I am not hiding anything, you can come to Campbell County High School anytime we invite you. We just want to make Campbell County High School the best in the county, we appreciate you all,” Foust said. (WLAF NEWS PUBLISHED-12/10/2025-6AM)