Liftoff of the school board’s plan to build a new K-2 school to replace Smithville Elementary remained on the launching pad as a contentious meeting of the county commission left the tribunal divided on how to proceed, the group voting to table the entire issue pending further study.

In a vote of 8-6, the county commission decided to withhold approval for Upland Design to begin a study on the viability of locating the proposed K-2 next to the existing Northside School. The project, if it were approved by the commission at a later date, would cost around $20 million. However, during their appearance before the commission this past week, the school board was asking only permission to get the preliminary site studied, a cost that would be paid out of the school system coffers.

“Why are we here?” asked Commissioner Bruce Malone before the vote could be taken. “What are we voting on?”

Malone wanted to pump the brakes on the K-2 plan, saying he would like to have a workshop with the school board before approving anything. He clarified he wasn’t against building a new school but instead would like to discuss it further with school officials before voting on anything.

“This is only my opinion but why did you pick such a small building (elementary school)? Were you afraid the county commission would turn it down if you didn’t?,” he asked. “I think we should get the biggest bang for the buck. Maybe the school board was too afraid to ask for much more. I would be inclined to spend more for more. I would like to have a workshop because I definitely agree that we do need schools. Something needs to be done but I don’t know if this is the right thing for DeKalb County or not. I would like to see a plan we could all go along with and make the citizens of DeKalb County happy and it be something we would all be proud of.”

Fellow commissioner Dennis Slager tried to clarify what the school board was asking for, telling Malone he thought he could answer 99 percent of Malone’s questions.

“All we’re trying to do is give these guys a go ahead to move forward,” Slager explained. “They have gone as far as they can go on somebody else’s dime. Now they are going to have to ante up a little money to get the remaining work done on this study. When they get this study done they are going to come back and present it to us and say hey guys here is what we found out. Here is what we found out from TDOT. Here is what the engineer says. We may or may not have to buy some additional land. We don’t know yet. But they don’t either. The only way we’re going to find out is to hire the professionals who can make that decision and go forward and that’s what this motion does.”

Taken back by the smoothness of Slager’s explanation, Malone questioned whose words had just come out of his mouth.

“Did you write that or what the mayor?” Malone shot back, his inference that Slager had been fed the explanation by Mayor Tim Stribling getting the mayor’s ire.

“I think you may be out of order,” he told Malone, pointing out he (Stribling) is the presiding officer and was not part of the discussion.

Commissioner Jerry Adcock suggested the resistance to allowing the school board survey of the site might be because many commissioners prefer a K-8 school model, similar to the one at West.

In the end the commission voted to table the school board request pending a join meeting between the education committee and school board.