Fayetteville board authorizes contract drafting for $13.1M dome project, vows to oppose school consolidation

The Fayetteville City Board of Education on Monday authorized its superintendent to have outside counsel draft a contract with Century Construction Group for a proposed monolithic dome — described as a safe‑room/gym — and discussed funding scenarios that would change the district’s out‑of‑pocket cost.

Facilities staff told the board there were two qualifying bidders and that the total bid with alternates was $13,064,865, with alternates alone described as roughly $1.6 million. Facilities said the district’s local exposure if federal disaster‑related funds are not awarded would be about $5.5 million; if the additional federal funding is obtained, staff estimated the district’s net cost could be roughly $3.0 million. The timeline for a definitive funding answer from the federal office (FEMA/TEMA) was uncertain.

Board members discussed contract progress benchmarks and reporting; project documents note a typical construction completion period of about 490 days from groundbreaking, with quarterly progress reports required under the bid documents. The board voted to authorize Superintendent Jones to instruct JBHM (the district’s contract attorney) to draft a proposed contract for review by board counsel and to proceed with final execution once funding and contract review conditions are met.

During the meeting the chair also read a memo from the board attorney, Chuck Cable, summarizing legal and fiscal considerations related to petitions circulating in the community to call a referendum to consolidate Fayetteville City School System with Lincoln County. The attorney’s memo and the chair’s summary said previous consolidation efforts in Tennessee required significant new recurring revenue rather than producing taxpayer savings. Based on that memo, a board member moved and the board voted to formally oppose efforts to close Fayetteville City schools and consolidate with Lincoln County.

Board leaders emphasized they will continue communications with federal agencies to clarify whether starting work would affect eligibility for additional funds; they also instructed staff to have the drafted contract available for counsel review prior to execution. The board set follow‑up items and scheduled a work session before the April meeting to review contract materials and related capital project documentation.

Transcript note: the meeting transcript contains some inconsistent spellings and figures (for example, the simulator system is referred to as both "Malo" and "Milo" in separate portions of the record; a large number in the facilities presentation appears as "$33,000,000" or "$33,200,000" in two lines but appears inconsistent with the detailed bid tab stating $13,064,865). Those inconsistencies appear in the source transcript and are noted here rather than being presented as definitive facts.