Posted: Tuesday, November 17, 2009 12:02 pm

Tough economic times are forcing Rutherford County Schools revise its vision for the future and delay some building projects.

The school board will consider revisions to its two-year building plan at its monthly meeting Thursday night.

The board ran into trouble earlier this year when plans for construction of two new middle schools were delayed for a few months until the Rutherford County Commission approved the projects.

The Buchanan-Whitworth and Oakland middle schools were the latest in a long list of school construction needed to expand space in the county system, but a tight budget picture concerned some county commissioners.

With a similarly bleak economic outlook for next year, the board will consider delaying some big-ticket construction until the economy improves.

Construction of Stewarts Creek High School will be delayed until 2013. Eagleville School 12 classroom addition will begin in 2012. And Siegel High School will not see a classroom addition until 2012.

The additions to the bleachers at LaVergne High and Smyrna High Schools will be requested for the beginning of the 2011 school year.

The Eagleville project has been separated into a classroom addition project for 2012 and a core building facility project for a later year.

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The board will also consider changes to policy concerning community use of school facilities, the grading scale, child abuse and neglect, and attendance of non-resident students, among others.

The exact policies are as follows:

• Community Use of School Facilities
Committee will consider whether to allow certain types of for-profit businesses (such as children dance studios) to use school buildings. As of now, only non-profits can use schools.

• Grading System
Two items need to be cleaned up in relation to the new state academic standards. They both deal with how semester averages are used.

• Child Abuse/Neglect
Policy needs to be adjusted because of a new state law about reporting requirements for child abuse/neglect that happens at school.

A new state law says schools have to report it to parents (when it involves their children). The previous law did not make this mandatory, even though RCS does report alleged abuse to parents.

• Attendance of Non-Resident Students
When the board first adopted a policy about no longer accepting students from out-of-county, a list of students from out-of-county who were already attending was generated. That list is no longer applicable because those students have long since graduated but a reference to it is still in the policy. That reference will be removed.