State contributes $1.9 million for Theodore High auditorium

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

By RENA HAVNER PHILIPS

Staff Reporter

Though the state has cut its education budget and construction money is scarce, Gov. Bob Riley is giving Theodore High School $1.9 million to build a new auditorium.

Mobile County schools Superintendent Roy Nichols said at a school board meeting Tuesday night that the school system can chip in about $1.7 million to complete the facility. The school system has that amount of money from a state reimbursement from repairs made to Grand Bay Middle School after Hurricane Katrina.

"Over the years, we've been asking for this," said Randy Torbert, whose son is in the band at Theodore. "We've seen many construction needs. We've seen fine arts buildings for other schools. All we ever wanted was just a fair shake."

State Sen. Ben Brooks, R-Mobile, worked with Riley to secure the funding for the auditorium, which will likely have a theater and seating for about 750 people.

Brooks said the new auditorium will finally give the students at Theodore on-campus space for band, choir and drama performances. Theodore students use the gymnasium, cafeteria and nearby churches for such events, Torbert added.

Similar auditoriums have been built at several other high schools over the last decade, including one at Prichard's Blount High, where Tuesday's school board meeting was held.

"You're talking about a group of students who have continued to bring home superior ratings. They have gone to state and won time after time," Torbert said. "They have performed under conditions that would have wracked the brains of kids at other schools."

The $1.9 million from Riley is interest that the state earned off a $1 billion bond taken out in 2007 for school construction. The state dispersed money from that bond to all school systems, including $51 million to the Mobile County Public School System.

Mobile County is using half that money to build a new elementary school adjacent to Hutchens Elementary, which the school board named Dawes Intermediate School on Tuesday, and a new North Mobile County Middle School for students who were displaced when Saraland split from the county and formed its own school system.

The county system used the other half of that money to cover operational costs and stay afloat during state budget cuts known as proration.

The school board is trying to figure out how to spend a $23 million interest-free construction loan as part of the federal stimulus package. The board has been prioritizing its list of needs - including replacing dilapidated facilities at B.C. Rain High School, Augusta Evans Special School and on a number of other campuses, as well as building new elementary and middle schools to relieve overcrowding in west Mobile.

"There are other projects, too," Brooks told the board Tuesday. "I'm going to work just as hard on them, too."

Mobile County school board member Bill Meredith said he's glad to receive this money from the state.

"I'm so overjoyed that we can do this after all of these years," Meredith said. "We kept saying we'll do it next time when we get some bond money. Now we can do it."