While the subject of Columbus Municipal School District’s $36 million bond proposal has sailed through a series of public meetings without much opposition, the Rotary Club of Columbus had hard questions Tuesday about how the money would be used.
Superintendent Stanley Ellis spoke to the club at Lion Hills Center, detailing the projects the fund would support, including updates to life safety measures like sprinkler systems, building a new external gymnasium at Stokes-Beard Elementary, general repairs and fixing an ongoing drainage problem at the district’s athletic complex.
Ellis explained the district plans to target facilities that will last through the life of the debt. Buildings that may not be around in the future won’t receive as many resources, he said.
“When we get (this bond), we’re going to be focusing on places that are going to see the life of the loan,” Ellis said. “But more importantly, the direction we’re going to be going in the future.”
Cook and Sale elementaries, for example, would see more work than Fairview, he said. No bond-funded work is slated for Franklin, but the district instead plans to pursue historic grant funds for improvements there.
Those future plans, Ellis said, will include moving from the magnet school model to grade span campuses at some point in accordance with the district’s strategic plan that runs through 2027.
Out of the district’s seven schools that house students, three are operating about 60% capacity, he said. The other four are functioning closer to 50% capacity, including Columbus Middle School and Columbus High School.
With those numbers in mind, Rotarian Doug Robertson asked why the district wouldn’t consider consolidating to one elementary school instead of the five it currently has.
The board is having those conversations, Ellis said. But for now, plans for consolidating schools haven’t been announced.
Rotarian John Davis asked, if CMS is already underutilized, why would the district spend money redoing Hunt Intermediate Academy to house sixth graders?
“We have plans to put some other things in Hunt … to get that building to capacity where it will be utilized the way it needs to be,” Ellis said. “At some point, the district is going to go grade span … over the next couple of years, so that’s going to allow us to do some things with some of our buildings as well.”
In addition to housing sixth grade, Hunt could be used for some type of collaboration with Mississippi University for Women “to strengthen the student-teacher pipeline,” CMSD Public Information Officer Mary Pollitz told The Dispatch after the meeting.
Rotarians also asked how the district ended up at this point, noting that some of the facility issues the bond will address seem to be maintenance problems that were never handled.
CMSD Chief Financial Officer Holly Rogers said budgetary restrictions in the past have played a part in the poor condition of the facilities.
“Some of it is deferred maintenance, but some of it is all we could patch at the time because of the budget of the school,” she said. “(CMSD) has historically asked for less ad valorem tax than we’ve needed to run the district … and that cuts into your maintenance budget.”
Another point of discussion was how and when projects would be carried out. One member asked if taxpayers have access to a master plan and phasing options for how the bond will be used.
Ellis said PryorMorrow, the architectural firm the district hired in December to conduct a facilities study, had prepared “two or three options” for how the facility updates would be phased. Those plans, however, have not yet been made available to the public.
If the bond does pass, it will recommit as many 11.85 debt service mills that were issued in 2009 and expired this month. Homeowners’ property taxes won’t increase if the bond passes but could decrease by as much as $118.50 per every $100,000 of assessed property value if it fails.
Taxpayers will vote whether to approve or reject the bond on May 14. It requires at least 60% approval to pass.
McRae is a general assignment and education reporter for The Dispatch.
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