Will Discovery That School District Has Paid Church Bills Impact School Closure?

August 7, 2008

The discovery that the Escambia County School District has paid tens of thousands of dollars in utility bills for a building leased to New Life Baptist Church for $1 per year will have no bearing the district decision whether or not to close Carver/Century K-8, the school district’s spokesman says.

During the 2007 calendar year, the district paid just over $48,500 in water, gas, sewer and garbage charges to the Town of Century of the old Century High School building leased to New Life Baptist Church, even though the church’s lease on the property clearly states the church will pay the utility bills.

Click here for a story detailing the utility bill payments.

That number is over seven percent of the $680,000 that the district says they will save per year by closing the current Carver/Century K-8 School following the upcoming school year. The district is currently investigating whether or not they have paid the electric bills on the property, potentially pushing that percentage much higher.

Even if it turns out the district won’t save the full $680,000 per year because some portion of that figure has been going toward New Life Baptist Church, Associate Superintendent Ronnie Arnold says the superintendent still plans to recommend closing the school.

“I don’t see where it will have any bearing at all on the superintendent’s decision,” Arnold told NorthEscambia.com. “A mistake may have happened on these bills. But it does not change the fact that we spend three to four times the amount per student to keep Carver/Century open as we do per student in the rest of the district. It’s just an expensive school to operate because of its size.”

Century Mayor Freddie McCall said that he did not think the change in numbers would lead to a change in heart on the part of Superintendent Jim Paul. Paul is expected to recommend closure of Carver/Century K-8 School at the August 19 meeting of the school board. Students would be bused to Bratt Elementary School and Ernest Ward Middle School.

“I don’t think it is going make any difference,” McCall said. “But I am asking him (Paul) to please not do anything right now. Let the new superintendent make that decision.” Paul dropped out of the superintendent’s race several months ago, opting to no longer seek reelection.

“You can’t tell me it will be cheaper to transport these children somewhere else; you won’t make me believe that,” said Benny Barnes, former Century mayor and chamber of commerce president. “I hope this (the utility bill payments) will make enough difference in the money that some good will come of all this for our school.”

“It might not be as expensive to operate our school as they think,” Barnes said. “It could be a lot less when they figure out how much money they have been spending to support the church.”

“He has ripped off the taxpayers,” Barnes said of New Life Pastor Irvin Stallworth. “He’s told the school board lies. He’s lied about the whole thing over there.”

NorthEscambia.com attempted to contact Rev. Irvin Stallworth by both phone and email Wednesday afternoon for comment on this story. We left phone messages at a listed number for the New Life Baptist Church, and at another number listed for the Century Community Development Partnership. We also emailed Rev. Stallworth at his personal email address and left messages with a member of his church. We called his home phone number in Milton and attempted to leave a message, but we received a message that his voicemail box was full.

For more continuing coverage on this story:

Click here to read “School District Pays Church Utility Bills: Community Reaction”

Comments

3 Responses to “Will Discovery That School District Has Paid Church Bills Impact School Closure?”

  1. concerned citizen on August 9th, 2008 2:27 pm

    Jack
    This is about doing the right thing. This may appear to you as a political attack and it may well be however it still brought out the truth about misappropriation of public monies. Whether this is your friend, business partner, pastor, etc. you are doing him no good with your ramblings about his vision for Century, etc.

    Mr. Stallworth has made one reply and that is that they didin’t pay their bills and he was aware that bills were not being paid by the church but by the school board and that the church didn’t know this. He has owned up to that, now fix it. Don’t try to hide behind rhetoric. Your church leadership has some problems. Doesn’t matter what a great guy you think he is and how great your church is, what happened was wrong and this has impacted the community negatively and financially.

    Spend your time solving your problems with your church and your community group. Get the utilities in the church’;s name, start paying your present utility bills and make arrangements for payments on the ones in question.

    Your church rented the space, signed the lease stop making excuses. Fix it.

  2. Delane Garrett on August 9th, 2008 11:29 am

    again I say PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  3. Jack Moran on August 7th, 2008 8:40 am

    It would be a much neater and convenient world if news were to break on an arranged schedule. I would like to comment that Pastor Stallworth was out of town when the accusations were made against him and the New Life Baptist Church by an old politician with an axe to grind in an unedited letter in the Tri-City Ledger.

    As an active member of New Life Baptist Church, I can tell you where he has been this past week, why he has been gone, and why he has not answered calls made by northescambia.com.

    He has spent the past week assisting a recent honors graduate of North View High School and a member of his church, with gaining admission to a major university. The trip was planned weeks ago and was intended to be a bit of a vacation after he spent weeks and weeks of intensive effort as chairperson of the Century Blue Ribbon Committee on Education keeping our school from being closed. He was named Chair the committee by Mayor McCall who was scheduled for surgery during that critical time. Irvin Stallworth worked tirelessly and to this point successfully on saving the school that no one wants to see closed – no one in Century that is.

    I was the person that recommended to Pastor Stallworth that he turn his phone off and make only out-going calls during this well deserved respite.

    I am sure this situation is embarrassing to the school district, and well it should be; and I applaud northescambia.com for bringing it forward in their interest to inform the public. I am sure the issue will be worked out, once all of the facts are know; however, all of this smacks of a political attack and a personal vendetta against a Man of God, My Pastor, and my friend, Rev. Irvin Stallworth. As a side note; I encourage everyone to visit the Old Century High School and see the wonderful work of Pastor Stallworth and our church, and hear the Vision we have for our communities’ future.

    BTW, The US Department of Education has repeatedly recommended that rural community schools not be closed or consolidated. I think Pastor Stallworth is a political victim here.

Written by William Reynolds · Filed Under News