How Transylvania School's $68 Million Renovation Project Will Proceed Without Key Staffer
School leaders discussed staffing changes needed to guide the work after the retirement of Norris Barger, who had been the public face of the project.
BREVARD — Norris Barger, as director of both business services and plant operations for Transylvania County Schools, was the linchpin of its voter-approved, $68 million school-renovation project.
He served as chair of the School Bond Construction Committee and as the liaison between the district and the project’s architect, Clark Nexsen, and its contractor, Vannoy Construction. When the Transylvania County Commission, which is financing the project, had questions about its progress, Barger provided the answers.
So what happens now that his long-anticipated retirement date, Oct. 31, has come and gone?
“Good question,” said Schools Superintendent Jeff McDaris, before answering it by describing personnel moves that include the hiring of a new finance director and the reassignment of Norris’ other duties to current staffers.
The renovation of Rosman High and Middle schools and Brevard High School had previously been scheduled to start this summer. But in July bids for the work and materials came in $18.2 million higher than expected — an increase attributed to disruptions caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. The work was then delayed for at least a year to allow for a cost-saving redesign and a hoped-for settling of the construction market.
Most School Board members interviewed said they expect a smooth transition as Barger’s old duties are assumed by others.
“I continue to have a lot of confidence in this project,” said member Courtney Domokur. “I really think that Clark Nexsen and Vannoy have done a fabulous job.”
Board member Kimsey Jackson, who noted Barger’s expertise in both construction and finances, isn’t so sure.
“I think the real answer is — there ain’t nobody who can step into that job right now,” he said”
Maybe not any one person, McDaris said, who acknowledged the importance of Barger to the project.
“I told Norris he couldn’t retire,” McDaris joked.
But he was also able to detail the moves that will divide Barger’s duties among incoming and existing staffers.
The district has hired a new finance director, Gabrielle Frost, who currently works as the staff accountant for public schools in Craven County NC, and will be paid $80,000 annually, he said.
“She has a wonderful and interesting background,” he wrote in an email. School finance is a specialized field, he added in an interview, and qualified applicants rare.
“School finance officers don’t grow on trees,” he said. “I feel very fortunate that we were able to hire her.”
She cannot begin her duties until Jan. 1, and Assistant Superintendent Brian Weaver will fill her role in the interim, McDaris said.
Alan Justice, meanwhile, will add plant operations to his current jobs as director of athletics and transportation.
Weaver said that current plant operations staffers have the know-how to address issues with the contractor and architect.
“Many of our plant operations workers have construction experience,” he said.
So when will that work, and the public discussion of it, begin?
Jackson has been the board member most impatient to talk about the revised plan, and this summer requested that Vannoy and Cark Nexen bring it back to the Sept. 20 meeting, and said, a month ago, “it’s past time that this has been before the board.”
McDaris said that potential revisions will be brought before the Construction Committee, which includes representatives from both the schools and the county, at its Nov. 16 meeting, which is open to the public. The board will discuss the Committee’s recommendations soon afterwards.
McDaris said that representatives of the firms have met with school board members individually to present options. Though neither he nor board members offered details of those discussions, he said plans at Rosman would be least affected and that the cafeteria and old gym at Brevard, both of which were built in 1959, must be demolished, as the original plan called for.
Temporary work needed to allow the cafeteria to be used in the meantime has been nearly completed, he added.
“They are decent options — not ideal, but we can work with them,” said Domokur, who works at a local architectural firm and is a member of the construction committee. She defended the closed discussions, which she said allowed Clark Nexsen and Vannoy to hear concerns and get the information needed to address them.
“So, we’re not asking questions at a public meeting and having them go back and get answers and then come back and do another presentation,” she said.
Neither the board’s vice chair, Ron Kiviniemi, nor the chair, Tawny McCoy — who has the most say in setting meeting agendas — responded to requests for interviews.
School Board member Marty Griffin said “we’ll do it in a public meeting when we’re ready to do it in a public meeting. Let us do our jobs.”
Meanwhile, he added, the expected reduction in the cost of materials hasn’t come to pass.
“The only thing that has come down is wood,” he said, which is not the primary framing material for the school project. “And we’re not using wood.”