Jones gives facilities update in first meeting as superintendent

Published 10:00 am Thursday, July 24, 2025

By Jay Compton

Tuesday marked the first Middlesboro Board of Education meeting for the district’s new superintendent Bill Jones.

“It is an honor to be up here and be part of this organization and I’m proud to do so. I’m going to try my best to take care of every student and every staff member we have in this district,” Jones said before going over some construction updates.

He said work on the tennis courts started last week and they should be ready in two to three weeks for the kids and community to use. Jones also said the same company who installed the new awnings at the middle school and high school would be putting up a fence around the dumpster at the middle school. Everything has been ordered and that small project should also be completed before the start of school.

Jones told the board that he has been doing walk-throughs at the district’s facilities with the maintenance crew and had identified some areas of concern.

“Back when the Elementary School was remodeled, they never replaced the roof on the library and cafeteria, all they did was patch that part of it,” he said. “We’ve developed some leaks. We’ve got them patched right now, but eventually that’s going to be something that we’re going to have to address.”

He said he would be getting some estimates for that project “so we know what we’re getting into.”

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Jones said he thought the best option would be going with foam like was used at the middle school and the central office building.

“It’s been very, very durable. I know it’s fairly expensive but it’s for our kids and it needs to be done,” he said.

He said the visitors’ press box a the football field needs to be completely redone.

“At the minimum we might be able to get by with just a new roof,” Jones said. “The storms that hit our area over the last few months has done a job on our roofs.”

He said the dugouts on both the baseball and softball fields are also in need of new roofs as well as the bathroom facility outside the baseball field.

‘We have a contractor who is going to go by and look all of those roofs and get us some estimates,” Jones added.

In other business, the board approved:

  • payment to First State Financial in the amount of $134,819.74 (principal $131,770.00, interest $3,049.74) for the refinancing of the School Facilities Construction Bond for the Middle School from 2015;
  • payment to First State Financial in the amount of $182,562.54 (principal $138,026.00, interest $44,536.54) for Phase II of the Elementary Renovation from 2017;
  • payment to First State Financial in the amount of $50,200 for interest on the athletic field upgrade from 2023;
  • KISTA Bonds from 2016 ($209.40 interest), 2017 ($302.47 interest), 2019 $566.01 interest), 2020 ($634.81) and 2021 ($397.69 interest) for a total of $2,110.38 for school bus purchases;
  • the second reading of KSBA policy and procedure updates;
  • procedural fiscal management guidelines needed for the district to monitor the StopV program;
  • a resolution adopting the 5-standard KASA superintendent effectiveness framework;
  • awarding the bus maintenance bid to Custom Paint & Auto Repair, Inc.
  • the interagency agreement and memorandum of understanding with the Department of Juvenile Justice for 2025-26 for the Group Home;
  • the grant agreement with Elgin for a school social worker for the 2025-26 school year;
  • using Blackboard (Anthology), Outlook (kctcs.edu domain) and Starfish (EAB) as the form of communication for dual credit students as per Senate Bill 181;
  • the MOA between Winds of Change, LLC and the Middlesboro Independent School District for the 2025-26 school year;
  • the agreement between the Department of Education and the MISD for provision and reimbursement of administrative claiming activities, this allows Medicaid reimbursement to various agencies who provide services to students with special needs;
  • payment of $4,268.78 for membership to the Kentucky School Board Association for 2025-26.

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