Just 32 feet from the Lebanon High School cafeteria where 1,600 students sit daily to eat their lunch rests a breeding ground for cockroaches, some as large as an adult human finger.
"What bothers me is what I can't see — the possible viruses, germs and gases emitting from that manhole," said Wilson County Schools Director Mike Davis.
That's just one of many issues that Davis cites as a need for a new Lebanon High School, a project that is shovel-ready if the county commission will fund the estimated $50 million to $60 million cost.
The school board has purchased the land, drawn up the plans and put the project out to bid twice.
However, a capital project that requires a tax increase may be a tough sell in the current economic climate, when local governments are already cash-strapped and many residents are out of work.
Recently the school board met with the county commission's finance and education committee. Together they came up with three possible funding mechanisms — an increase to the wheel tax, an increase in sales tax or a combination of the two.
County commissioner Annette Stafford, who has long been a vocal advocate for a new Lebanon High School, proposes funding the construction by tacking an additional $30 to $37.50 onto the county's current $25 wheel tax. She plans to bring the legislation to the county commission next month.
"I think the county commission needs to do what the voting public put them up there to do — to make a decision. They put us up there to make tough decisions," she said.
"The need for a new Lebanon High is long, long overdue. A new school will make all the difference in the world."
Old school, many problems
Roaches aren't the only problem inside the 55-year-old school, which was originally constructed to hold 600 students.
A musty smell is immediately noticeable upon entering the school. Visible mold grows in a variety of locations, and water damage is prevalent around the old single-pane windows, along crevices and on many walls. In one administrative office, a sewer drain backs up with gases if water isn't poured down the drain every night.
"I used to get headaches," said interim principal Nancy Ash, who occupied that office when she was an assistant principal. "I didn't know why I was getting them, but I knew it didn't smell very well."
Large cockroaches can be found both dead and alive in the hallways, bathrooms and classrooms. The sewer smell hovers in the hall around the manhole cover when students are in the buildings and the bathrooms are in use, Ash said.
Lebanon High's maintenance and cleaning crews "do a tremendous job with what they have," Davis said. But there's only so much they can do with a school that is overwrought with problems and crowded with too many students.
Davis plans to spend some money over the summer to place an airtight seal on the manhole cover near the cafeteria and another manhole cover inside the school. There are also plans to add a fresh air intake system into a classroom that has had repeated problems with mold growth.
So many things are wrong that correcting all the problems would be half the cost of a new building, and the school still would be inadequate because of its size, Davis said.
Parents support new school project
Many parents in the Lebanon High district stand solidly behind a tax increase to fund the new school.
William Porter will have two children there in the fall, a freshman daughter and a junior son. Porter is also a 1983 graduate of Lebanon High.
The school had its share of problems when he attended in the 1980s, but those problems have worsened over time, he said.
"There is a lot of overcrowding," Porter said. "We've got some mold issues. The cafeteria is so small there's hardly enough room for them to get through the line and sit down and eat. The restroom facilities are a mess.
"It's just an old, run-down building."
Porter is especially concerned about the mold inside the school because his daughter suffers from allergies.
Scott Benson, principal at Walter J. Baird Middle School, a feeder school for Lebanon High, also has a child about to enter high school in Lebanon.
Before taking the helm at Baird, a school inside the Lebanon Special School District, Benson worked for the Wilson County school system at Lebanon High.
"It makes me angry," Benson said about the school building. "I think Lebanon High School is a great school. They've got a great staff and great teachers. And they deserve to be in a better facility."
Benson has attended several meetings in the county to garner citizen support for a new school.
"It really gets frustrating that it keeps being talked about but it hasn't been done at this point," Benson said.
Disparity between schools
As an educator, Benson has noticed the disparity between Lebanon High and other schools inside and outside the Wilson County district.
The new Mt. Juliet High School, for example, has a cavernous cafeteria, a football-field sized indoor facility that can be used as a practice field for the band and football teams and a state-of-the-art building that includes radio broadcasting and video equipment and training for students. The $42 million school opened in fall 2008.
"Our kids in Lebanon deserve the same thing," Benson said.
Both Mt. Juliet High and Wilson Central serve a more affluent student population, Davis said.
According to the state Department of Education report card for 2008, some 31.7 percent of the students at Lebanon High are considered economically disadvantaged. That compares with 14.1 percent at Mt. Juliet High and 17.2 percent at Wilson Central.
Lebanon High also serves a larger minority population than other high schools in the county. At Lebanon High, 23.6 percent of the students are considered minorities, compared to 12 percent at Mt. Juliet High, 11.2 percent at Wilson Central and 7.5 percent at Watertown High.
Inspectors note problems
The school is in such bad shape that Davis has been working on a contingency plan.
"If a regulatory agency were to come in and tell me to shut part of the building down, what would I do?" he said.
One plan would involve busing some students to the other three county high schools, increasing annual transportation costs by about $1 million. Another plan would stagger schedules, with some students attending school from about 7 a.m. until 1 p.m. and others from about 1:30-7:30 p.m.
Earlier this year, the state fire marshal's office noted several problems in the school that have since been addressed, such as rooms needing doors to the outside. Davis expects the next annual inspection to yield another list of problems.
"Every time they come in, it's just a whole new list," Davis said. "It's just more money and more expense."
The state health department also examined the building, noting deficiencies in the restroom facilities and the state of repair and cleanliness of ceilings, walls, floors, doors and windows. The October 2008 report commented on debris in a hallway and tissue on a restroom floor.
However, the surveyor who conducted the 45-minute environmental survey, Alan Sims, did not make any notation in his report about cockroaches or sewer gases.
"It was not pointed out to me while I was there, and I did not see any of that going on," Sims said. He also noted that no one has filed any complaints with him about health issues inside the school.
Even if Sims had noted the cockroach infestation and sewer gases in his annual inspection, the state health department has no regulatory authority to force the school system to fix the problems, an official said.
"There are currently in Tennessee no laws that are related to the health conditions of school buildings as a whole," said Tennessee Department of Health spokeswoman Shelley Walker.
The health department can demand that the schools take corrective action in school cafeterias but not in other parts of the building, she said.
Better school, better local economy
Stafford, who is also a Realtor, pointed out that while many school systems attract new people to an area, Lebanon High has sent some of her potential buyers elsewhere.
She estimates that she loses three or four Lebanon home sales a year after people see where their children would attend high school.
"They would rather move to Mt. Juliet before they put their kids here. It's not the administration. It's not the students. It's the run-down condition of the school," Stafford said.
Judy Cox, broker for C & D Realty in Lebanon and a board member of the Eastern Middle Tennessee Association of Realtors, has experienced similar issues.
"In the last year, I would say that we've lost five buyers to Rutherford County because of the Lebanon High School building," Cox said.
Dr. Matt Murray, associate director for the Center for Business and Economic Research at the University of Tennessee, has studied the impact of schools on local economies.
"What you find is higher-quality schools lead to higher property values," he said, while schools with multiple problems can drag the local economy down.
"If you are a business looking for a place to do business and you hear these anecdotal stories from Realtors, that has to discourage you from locating in that community," Murray said.
The reason is twofold. First, business movers and shakers don't want to buy their own homes in an area that doesn't place a premium value on education. Second, they want to locate in an area with a commitment to training a quality work force, Murray said.
"A community will pay a price for failing to make a commitment to education," he said. "That price is weaker job growth, lower income and high poverty rates to the extent that educational outcomes are hurt."