County to talk $28.2M school funding
By Steve Herring
Published in News on June 5, 2016 1:45 AM
sherring@newsargus.com
Wayne County commissioners Tuesday morning will consider approval of $28.2 million in school facilities that would include a new Meadow Lane Elementary School.
The new school would be built on the existing campus on East Ash Street and include a wing to house a new Edgewood Community Developmental School.
The plan would also fund $4.6 million for 22 additional classrooms at Fremont STARS Elementary School; $3.2 million for a new gym and six classrooms at Southern Wayne High School; and $400,000 to add air conditioning at the Rosewood Middle School gym.
The Southern Wayne gym would be from a plan previously submitted to the school board by the school's Boosters Club.
Of the total cost, $23.6 million would need to debt financed over 20 years at 3.5 percent annual interest.
The $4.6 million addition at Fremont STARS could be paid for from existing school board sales tax funds on hand.
The spending plan would not require a tax increase, County Manager George Wood said.
Tuesday's meeting will begin with an agenda briefing at 8 a.m. followed by the formal session at 9 a.m. Both will be held in the commissioners' meeting room on the fourth floor of the Wayne County Courthouse Annex.
Meadow Lane surged to the forefront for facilities needs in recent weeks following behind-the-scenes meetings between county and schools officials, representatives of Seymour Johnson Air Force Base and others local leaders.
During a May 9 joint meeting of commissioners and the school board, Wayne County Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Michael Dunsmore said conditions at the school, including security concerns, have created a perception in the military that the county's schools "are not good."
Concerns were expressed as well that those conditions could adversely impact decisions concerning the base's future including BRAC Commission findings.
The plan Wood is recommending commissioners approve is slightly different than the one approved just three weeks ago by the board of education.
The recommendation is the outgrowth of ongoing meetings between Wood, commission Chairman Joe Daughtery and Dunsmore and school board Chairman Chris West.
The recommendation depends on the school board's willingness to change some school attendance zone lines as outlined in its plan.
Under that plan, once the additions are made at Fremont STARS, district attendance lines can then be adjusted to bring Northwest Elementary and Northeast Elementary schools back under capacity.
By including Tommy's Road Elementary School, and managing district attendance lines, future growth can be absorbed thereby keeping the four northern Wayne County elementary buildings under capacity.
"The board of education has voted to approve this initial five-year plan and understands fully that changing some attendance lines will be a necessary part of this plan," Wood said in the memo.
Wood said in the memo that Dunsmore has received more refined numbers on the Meadow Lane/Edgewood project based on a similar project elsewhere in the state and believes that it can be designed and built for $20 million rather than the original $21.8 million -- a savings of $1.8 million.
The additional 22 classrooms at Fremont STARS Elementary School will alleviate overcrowding at Northwest, Northeast and Tommy's Road elementary schools.
The classrooms would replace mobile units at those schools.
Dunsmore is also exploring an option that would put about half the classrooms at Fremont STARS and half at Northwest, Wood said.
"In my opinion, that decision should be left to the board of education to determine," Wood said in the memo.
To help offset the debt service, Wood is proposing the following projected revenues:
* $527,000, operating savings from Edgewood and Meadow Lane School replacements.
* $248,011, savings to the county and school board from the refinancing of the Grantham/Spring Creek middle schools debt.
* $258,000, 5.1 percent growth in the school's portion of the sales tax restricted for capital outlay/debt service in fiscal year 2017.
* $148,473, 2.5 percent growth in the school's portion of the sales tax in fiscal year 2018.
* $479,023, county funding (available in fiscal year 2018 from the $600,000 in one-time funding in fiscal year 2017 for the school system's technology plan).
* $1,660,507, total available revenues.
* $1,660,507, annual debt service payment required.
It would be next spring before the projects are designed by an architect, and bids awarded meaning the debt would be issued late next year or early 2018. The debt service payments would not begin until 2018.
"This financial plan will allow us to pay for these proposed school projects from available revenues, without any tax increase," Wood said in the memo. "Bear in mind that the school's portion of the sales tax should grow every year, just from inflationary increases in the underlying cost of goods purchased. In addition, any expansion of the local economy would generate still more revenue.
"We are projecting about 2.5 percent annual growth in sales taxes. We believe this gives us a solid basis to finance these projects."
The projects would be set up so that the county is the owner during construction since counties are exempt from paying sales taxes, but boards of education are not.
Once the projects are completed, ownership would be transferred back to the school board.
The county did that during construction of the new Grantham and Spring Creek middle schools.