Crestwood High School stadium project update, 2026 budget before school board

A full discussion on remaining work necessary for the Crestwood High School football stadium/athletic complex project and an updated presentation on the Fiscal Year 2026 budget will be before Sumter school board on Monday.

Another project update on the Mayewood Middle School concession stand/bathroom building; updates on rezoning schools' attendance lines, planned for implementation in the 2026-27 school year; the district's summer school program; and public participation also were listed on the agenda, which was posted Friday.

At the board's Finance Committee meeting Wednesday, June 4, district Chief Financial Officer Shatika Spearman confirmed that when administration met with Crestwood leaders, including coaches, this spring to create a "priority list" of needed items to complete a full-scale stadium/athletic complex, that is when total project estimate costs essentially doubled.

The Crestwood construction project is now estimated to cost $9.8 million, she said, but could be lower or higher once the bid process is completed.

Spearman, district Executive Director of Operations Samuel Myers, Superintendent William Wright Jr. and others met with the school's leadership after school board members, including Brian Alston, urged them to do so to create a comprehensive list of items -- from the school’s perspective -- still needed to outfit the project.

Alston and others expressed concerns about a "piecemeal approach" by administration on the project work, and he made his suggestion at the Feb. 10 board meeting after Spearman and Myers asked the full board for a third financial allocation to the project.

Myers has served as the project's manager, and both he and Spearman have said on various occasions that the Crestwood project has served as a learning experience for them before handling future football stadium renovations at Lakewood High and Sumter High.

The list totals $4.8 million in remaining work to include additional restrooms (mobile units), fencing, field goal netting, parking lot resurfacing, other parking needs, 600 additional seats on the visitors' side of the field, a visitors' press box, new LED lighting and a $1.8 million fieldhouse. Administration initially presented it to the board's Finance Committee on April 23 and then to the full board on May 5.

The full board approved the entire "Priority List" in a 7-2 vote at its last meeting on May 19. Trustees Bonnie Disney and Phil Leventis voted against the measure.

Disney, a finance committee member, asked Spearman why costs now exceed $6 million when Myers said they would not reach that level in a board meeting about 11 months ago.

Spearman said once construction continued last year, staff realized it would cost more.

"Things change. Projects do change," she said.

Spearman added the district has followed its required financial protocols on the project.

After a whistleblower, who is a former district employee, took the project issue and another operations concern to the state Office of the Inspector General, that agency said it will start a review/investigation.

As a note, with the addition of $4.8 million in new items in late April, administration introduced the term of project “phases.” However, Spearman told The Item that from her standpoint as the CFO Crestwood has always been a “phased project” since it being paid for with bond proceeds money, which is issued each fall and spring, and the district cannot commit all that bond money at any one time to a single project.

“Once the board said add to it [with the Priority List], it becomes phases because we don’t have all that money to devote to it,” she said.

WILL STADIUM BE READY FOR FOOTBALL SEASON?

The fieldhouse is not a necessity for the upcoming football season, but given the numerous other listed items, Alston - another finance committee member - asked at Wednesday's meeting whether the stadium will be ready for the opening home game on Aug. 22 against rival Manning High.

Wright said he will have a meeting this week on that matter and will know more by week's end.

The Item asked Spearman and Myers on Thursday whether the "Priority List" could have been generated earlier than late April to devote additional manpower then but received no response from them. A district spokeswoman confirmed Spearman was off Thursday, and the district office is closed on Fridays in the summer. Alston told the newspaper on Friday the timing of the "Priority List" is a question he also has leading into Monday's meeting.

The Crestwood stadium is additionally used by the schools' boys' and girls' soccer teams and track and field teams. A small amount of initial project work also went into the school's softball field, Spearman and Myers have said.

Since the school opened in 1996, Crestwood has never had a home football field on site but has played home games in Dalzell at Hillcrest Middle School. Hillcrest served previously as a 4A high school up until the 1990s.

Regarding the Fiscal 2026 budget, board Chairman Shawn Ragin confirmed Friday he will discuss with fellow trustees recent small group discussions with Sumter County Council members on a three-mill request to fund a co-teacher model in classrooms across grades K-3 in the district. Since the district does not have fiscal autonomy to raise taxes, county council approves or denies millage requests from the district.

District administration will present its Fiscal 2026 budget and the millage request to the seven-member council on Tuesday night, he added.

Monday's meeting will begin at 6 p.m. at the district office, 1345 Wilson Hall Road.

Regarding public participation, any member of the public wanting to make a comment to the board on any topic must arrive before the 6 p.m. start time - as early as 5:30 p.m. - and complete a form to speak.

For those not physically attending, the district continues to broadcast meetings live on YouTube.

Anyone wanting to attend the meeting virtually can do so via YouTube Sumter School District Board Meeting and the district's Facebook page, @SumterSCSchools.