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During its May 22 meeting, the School Board unanimously passed the top five fiscal year end 2025 priorities, pending year end funding amounts. After much discussion, the Board agreed on the following top five list and the estimated costs. 

1. Employee retention bonuses – $725,300
2. John F. Kennedy Middle School furniture – $500,000
3. Security camera replacements – $439,850
4. Repairing Oakland Elementary’s courtyard – $100,000
5. Painting the roofs at Lakeland and Nansemond River High Schools – $620,000

This decision followed a previous discussion about year-end fund priorities during the Board’s May 8 meeting, when it was unanimously passed to first put any year-end funds toward SPS employee bonuses.

When the top 10 priorities were previously ranked, Vice Chair Sean McGee and Board member Tyron Riddick expressed disappointment that funding for John F. Kennedy furniture was not among them.

McGee asked why the cost of new furniture was not included in the original project plan. Superintendent Dr. John B. Gordon III said the city has never appropriated funds to the school division for any fixtures, furniture, or equipment for replacement schools, which is what John F. Kennedy is. 

“One thing that frustrates me with this city,” McGee said, “is the money coming in, everything’s going up north, and down south where I reside and where I represent, we’re not being looked at.”

That sentiment carried into the most recent meeting, inspiring more discussion about the furniture, and ultimately shifting it to become priority number two.

The total school project is $1.4 million short in furniture, fixtures, equipment and supplies. Wendy Forseman, SPS chief financial officer, explained the $500,000 included in the priority list is to make smaller payments toward the furniture over a longer period of time. It also provides some “wiggle room” on the total cost, as the furniture bid won’t come back until next March.

Gordon added they were also considering using year-end funds from next year, since the original plan was to obtain the furniture over two years.

He added that a “brand new school” should have “state-of-the-art” equipment, technology, and furniture, and anything else is “unacceptable.”

Riddick expressed similar sentiments, suggesting using money originally designated for a new Innovation Center to fund the furniture. In March, the Board approved awarding two bids for the Center totaling nearly $1 million.

“If we need $1.4 million, that was $1 million that we shifted, and we can do without it,” he said. “I will not stand by idle and let us drag old furniture with patchwork into a new building, that’s not going to happen.”

Board member Karen Jenkins called on the City to supply the $1.4 million needed for the new furniture.

“I believe strongly, that the City, who says that they love Suffolk Public Schools and want to work with us, that they could give us the money for furniture for the brand new school that will be built at John F. Kennedy.”

Board members Bawn Marie Brittingham, Ed.D, and Valerie Fields agreed with their colleagues. 

Gordon suggested the Board put the furniture as priority number two, after the bonuses, then ask the City Council to fund what might be left over.

After a general consensus was made to make the John F. Kennedy furniture second priority, the other items suggested for a top five list were discussed.

Forseman said it’s been nine years since the roofs at Lakeland and Nansemond River have been painted. She added it’s typically at the 10-year mark when they start to leak, which costs at least $7,000 to fix.

Board members Kimberly Slingluff and Brittingham said they want to see more security-related items in the top five.

“We need to take care of the security cameras, we need to replace telephones, but I believe we need those radios as well,” Brittingham said. “That is one more layer of security for staff members if anything were to go wrong.”   

SPS Director of Technology John Littlefield said the current security cameras will still work for a while, but they are lower resolution and the warranties have expired. He estimated 300 cameras are considered to be at the end of life throughout the district.

Riddick disagrees with replacing the security cameras as long as they are still in good, working condition.

“I’m looking at the long-term cost of replacing a leak that happens here which damage the tile, which damage the floor, which damages the chairs, which damage other things,” he said.