VALDOSTA — Some county school officials want to keep the Lowndes High School construction project as local as possible.

The main concern discussed at the board meeting this week is how much of the project will involve the Lowndes County community.

“All we want as a board are local suppliers, vendors and workers involved in this project,” said Mike Davis, District 1 member. “It’s not fair for us to spend $55 million of taxpayer money that goes somewhere into another county.”

Warren Turner, county school board attorney, said the board has a voice in discussing bids decided by the construction management firm.

“The intention is to request that the construction management crew solicit bids from anyone in the local area within the county to submit a response to their bid,” Turner said. “We get to make a determination as to which bid is accepted, so absolutely we have control over it.”

Most board members said they are fine with the direction of the project.

A construction management firm has not been decided yet. The board is currently in negotiations with JCI, a decision made at an Aug. 28 called meeting.

Also, school Superintendent Wes Taylor proposed the board vote to change the public participation policy for board meetings.

The policy allows for the public to sign up the night of the meeting to speak, giving them up to three minutes.

Taylor said he researched how other Georgia school districts run board meetings — some only allowing people to speak if they put in the request a week in advance — and he believes requests to speak should be turned in the Friday before a board meeting.

“Board meetings are meetings for the board conducted in public — they’re not really designed to be public meetings,” Taylor said. “We’re not trying to take away their right to participate in public. What we’re trying to do is make it more effective and productive.”

People wanting to speak would need to include a brief outline of their issue and the names of school officials they have already encountered.

This was the initial discussion for the potential policy change. It will be discussed at the next board meeting and could be voted on then.

The next board meeting is 6 p.m. Monday, Sept. 17, at the Lowndes Board of Education office at

Katelyn Umholtz is a reporter with the Valdosta Daily Times. She can be contacted at (229)244-3400 ext. 1256.