NATCHEZ — The Natchez-Adams School District superintendent told school board members Wednesday he has a construction plan for the district, but school board members said they were not ready to fully commit, citing concerns about financing and community input.

In a work session aimed to prepare board members for a Friday joint meeting with the county, city and recreation commission, Superintendent Fred Butcher presented a three-phase construction and renovation plan with a projected cost of $44,410,300.

The plan was “not carved in stone,” Butcher said, but he wanted to present to the board to gauge interest in the option to move forward with obtaining financial data. The three board members present — Amos James Jr., Thelma Newsome and Phillip West — said the plan was good, but expressed concerns about financing and communication with the community,

West said he supported the proposal, but he did not feel the board was in a position to make a decision without seeing a financial analysis of how the district would pay for the project.

An idea has been floated to potential use existing funds currently paying two bonds set to retire soon to potentially fund the project, which district officials have said would not create any new taxes. The option would require a referendum vote from the community to approve the tax renewal.

Newsome said her concern was about communication with the community.

“I just want us to be transparent in what we are doing, so when we go to the public, they won’t feel like we have already made up our minds without bringing the information to them and letting them have input,” Newsome said.

The work session also had the purpose of preparation for a joint meeting scheduled at 8:30 a.m. Friday at the Natchez Convention Center. The meeting will be between the school district, Natchez aldermen, Adams County supervisors and the Natchez-Adams Recreation Commissioners.

Butcher said the meeting would center on the land aspect — specifically the bean field property. The superintendent said the district would also have a short presentation on the school construction proposal.

The state donated the 37-acre bean field location to the City of Natchez, with the stipulation the property only be used for recreational or educational purposes.

However, an interlocal agreement exists between the school, city and county boards that the bean field location would be used for recreation. The recreation commission plans to use the bean field site for a baseball/softball complex capable of hosting out-of-town tournaments.

In 2016, the school board announced intentions to potentially use the bean field site to construct a new high school.

Recreation Commission Chair Tate Hobdy has said all three boards would have to vote to allow the school system to use the property.

The district may not need all 37 acres for construction of a new school, however, said Butcher, citing communications with the district’s architecture firm, M3A.

West said he was open to using just what the school board needs to put a new school next to the current high school, which would potentially be renovated and converted into a middle school, and leaving the remainder of the acreage to the commission.

“It should not be one or the other,” West said about choosing the school over recreation. “It should be let’s get it all done.”

Butcher said he would not commit to a specific acreage amount, as he still needed to iron out details with the architecture firm on whether the proposed school would be one story or two. But at the meeting, the administration floated the idea of possibly asking for 15 acres.

Concerning the construction proposal, the first phase would be building a new Natchez High School next door to the current school at a cost of approximately $23 million, but Butcher said he expected that final number could come down by modifying plans to the athletic wing of the school.

The school would be for freshmen — which would be a school within a school — to seniors with capacity for 1,250 students.

Once the high school students are moved into the new school, crews would renovate the current high school in phase two at a cost of approximately $17.1 million.

The plan calls for two academies at the campus, a Robert Lewis Lower Academy for fifth through sixth grade and a Robert Lewis Upper Academy for seventh through eighth grade. The renovated school’s capacity would be 1,227 students.

Depending on how many contractors the district hires, Butcher said parts of phase three could occur concurrently with phase two.

Phase three would see renovations at McLaurin Elementary at a cost of $1.9 million, West Elementary costing $2.9 million, and Morgantown Middle School with a $2 million price tag. The facilities would support kindergarten through fourth-grade elementary students.

Morgantown Middle School would be renamed Joseph Frazier Elementary School once the old school is closed.

Butcher said Robert Lewis Magnet School would also be closed. The current Natchez Freshman Academy could potentially be used as an alternative school, which the building has served as in the past.

“We are really doing away with two schools and that should be a savings,” Butcher said. “I know taxes are a concern, but if we were using less money for operating expenses, we would be asking the public for less taxing.”

The entire community would benefit from a new school, as improved education will help with crime rate and industrial development, Butcher said.

“I know people are saying why would you build a new school in an F district?” Butcher said. “Maybe this is why we are an F District. We can’t attract quality young teachers because of the buildings.”

Benefits of modern facilities next to each other include decreasing the drop out rate and disciplinary problems by increasing school pride, potentially saving money by decreasing the number of transportation routes, ability to share staff amongst the middle and high schools, ability to expand the career technical offerings with updated facilities and improved academic offerings and science labs.

“I want us to all work together when we roll out the plan,” Butcher said. “I want to make sure to get the staff involved, get all the businesses involved and get everyone in the community involved.

“This is a community project. It will set the tone of whether this community will go forward or stay still.”