A meeting Monday could go a long way toward determining if and when Vance voters will decide on the future of school facilities in this county.
Schools Superintendent Norm Shearin, Board of Education Chairman Tommy Riddle and schools finance chief Rudi Ligon are due to meet with top county officials to explore the options for getting the money needed for new school facilities.
A third middle school and a replacement for Clark Street Elementary are the biggest items on a $28.1 million list the school board sent to the county Board of Commissioners in December with a request for a bond referendum.
Despite school board attorney Jerry Stainback’s assertion that the bond request forces the commissioners to take action, they have done little more with this request than with at least three others that have died the past four years.
At their retreat last month, the commissioners discussed the school facility needs and couldn’t get past a projection that the proposed bond issue could at 15 or 16 cents to county’s tax rate of 92 cents per $100 of property value, already one of the state’s highest rates.
“There are multiple ways of obtaining the money,” Shearin said during Monday night’s school board meeting. “One of those ways is a bond issue, but it has to be times properly.”
He said Monday’s meeting will explore those options and the timing of any actions. The meeting will set the groundwork for a meeting of both full boards to choose a financing method and set a timeline.
“We need to develop a method for providing the facilities we need,” Shearin said.
Meanwhile, the two boards have taken steps to chip away at those needs, including two actions Monday night.
The school board voted to spend $280,000 from a $300,000 restricted capital reserve fund on a maintenance building. The school system received the money under a settlement with a contracting firm that botched the floor at Southern Vance High School.
The money eventually will be needed to repair the floor. To ensure the money is there when it’s needed, the school board committed to paying $28,000 back into the reserve fund every year for a decade.
Across town, the Board of Commissioners approved an application for $2 million in Qualified Zone Academy Bond funding. The QZAB program funnels federal money through the state as no-interest loans for school facility repairs and renovations but not new construction.
The school system will have up to 15 years to pay the money back.
The school request covers a variety of projects, the biggest of which are $783,751 for a new roof at Northern Vance High; $755,737 for improvements at E.M. Rollins Elementary, including energy-efficiency upgrades and new seats and flooring in the auditorium; and $261,671 at Southern Vance for air-conditioning-related equipment.