Fulton Public Schools board of education held a special meeting Wednesday evening to consider next steps in the district's ongoing strategic plan.
The meeting gave the board its second opportunity to publicly review upcoming projects and state priorities.
"I thought things came out real well considering this was only the second time the board was able to sit down and consider all of the options," said Jacque Cowherd, superintendent of Fulton Public Schools.
According to Cowherd, the board's top priorities for "tier one" of the upcoming projects include implementing preschool programs for everyone, reaching desirable classroom size, upgrading elementary gyms, upgrading an existing "pole barn" at Fulton Middle School, and upgrading the gymnasium and the nurse's office at Fulton High School. The board chose these after reviewing Hollis + Miller Architects' list of "tier one" options.
Cowherd explained the board aimed to target the "tier one" projects based off what they felt were priorities and to also have the expenses in the lower $20 million range.
According to Cowherd, the board will be finalizing these projects by January at the latest in order to authorize a public vote. However, the superintendent anticipates everything could be finalized sooner than that.
"I'm trying to get to board to really commit to voting on (the projects) in October," Cowherd said, "We could very well be ready to authorize the vote as soon as December."
The board agreed things such as ideal class size and gym spaces at the schools were "non-negotiable." Cowherd also explained he would like preschool programs to be phased into their system in an effort to have preschool available for every child in Fulton.
"We're not giving up on preschool for every child in the district, but (we're) phasing ourselves into preschool instead of just building a preschool building," the superintendent explained.
The later tiers of the strategic plan were all determined by the projects the board did not view as high priority as "tier one" projects.
The board of education will hold another special meeting regarding this subject Aug. 14, followed by a general board meeting and tax levy hearing Aug. 21 and a third community forum Aug. 29 at McIntire Elementary