Time is of the essence for Oktibbeha County school administrators to come up with local funding to build a demonstration school as Mississippi State University officials say the university’s 43-acre pledge is not an indefinite promise.
Starkville School District Superintendent Lewis Holloway said he and Oktibbeha County School District Conservator Margie Pulley are still discussing a financing package that could help fund the school and purchase technology items — laptops and SMART boards — for the county system in lieu of July’s state-mandated consolidation.
But the exact way the two districts would go about securing the funds — additional millage requirements for residents within OCSD’s territory, specifically — is still uncertain, and Holloway said he would not comment on the matter before a plan is finalized.
A county petition effort effectively killed OCSD’s first attempt at a $13.2 million bond through a reverse referendum ordered by the Legislature last year. Pulley pulled the bond intent notice after more than 20 percent of OCSD’s residents called for an election on the financing package.
Historically, OCSD’s voter base has not supported school improvement bonds, and such a referendum requires 60 percent of the electorate’s support.
MSU previously pledged $5 million and the 43 acres of land toward the proposed 102,000-square-foot school to be located across from the Thad Cochran Research, Technology and Economic Development Park, but officials say the school cannot hold the land indefinitely for the construction.
As MSU continues to grow, open land could become targets for developments like classrooms, dormitories and parking infrastructure.
David Shaw, MSU’s vice president for research and economic development, said the university will use the land for other purposes if plans to fund the demonstration school do not materialize.
“We don’t have plans for the site right now, but we can’t say we’ll preserve it forever, given that it’s a valuable piece of property. We don’t want to sit forever without a decision,” said Jerome Gilbert, MSU’s provost and executive vice president. “We’re giving up something to allow this school to be built, and we can’t have that commitment hanging out there forever. We would like people to be thinking about the opportunity and what it presents. It’s imperative we think about how we can make it happen.”
Both university administrators tempered their comments by saying there’s no immediate threat to the pledge.
Cohesion among the constituents of the upcoming Starkville-Oktibbeha Consolidated School District is also imperative to MSU’s fundraising efforts. The university has already raised $1 million for the project.
“It will be easier to raise the other $4 million if it looks like we’re making progress, if we have something to sell,” Gilbert said. “It’s just a concept now that a lot of people support. We can transform public education in our community, and that’s an opportunity that may not ever come again.
“We feel like we’re part of the community, and anything we can do to make the community stronger will make the university stronger. It will make Oktibbeha County a more desirable place to live, and that gives us an easier chance to recruit world-class faculty and staff, and keep them,” he added. “We people fully realize what they could get for their taxes, I think they’ll realize it’s a great investment.”
As originally planned, construction of the demonstration school revolved around three funding cornerstones: $10 million from the local level, a combined $10 million from MSU — the land was estimated at a $5 million donation — and $10 million from the Legislature.
Local lawmakers have balked at the idea of giving MSU, SSD or OCSD $10 million specifically for construction even though it was the Legislature that ordered the two school systems combine without setting aside any funding. State Rep. Gary Chism, R-Columbus, previously said MSU could use a regular building appropriation for the project, but the university would not receive additional monies.
Both Shaw and Gilbert said they remain optimistic about the Legislature answering the school’s request.
Besides providing a one-of-a-kind partnership in education, the school would have alleviated spatial issues and eased student-teacher ratios associated with consolidation.
Under the school merger plan, two county schools will close. No new construction, besides the demonstration campus, was planned or proposed.
A late-December legal notice for the proposed bonds sparked the petition process after some county residents complained about its timing, saying it was issued at the 11th hour when people were not paying attention to current events.
Others also alluded to not knowing how the money would be used; however, the bond’s issuance and its primary construction goal were both public knowledge since the topics were first pitched by the Commission on Starkville Consolidated School District Structure — the merger study group created by the Legislature — during open meetings and forums in 2013.
Senate Bill 2818, the Legislature’s 2014 answer to the group’s request and overall plan, authorized Pulley to increase OCSD’s bonding capacity by 3 mills for improvements to existing campuses and tasked her with issuing the reverse referendum for new construction.
Carl Smith covers Starkville and Oktibbeha County for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter @StarkDispatch
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