The Lowndes County School District board of trustees is putting another bond issue in front of voters.
The board voted 3-2 Monday to place a $44 million bond issue on the ballot this spring. The board agreed to put the matter on the ballot when a special election is held to fill the remaining term of Congressman Alan Nunnelee, who died this month. The governor has yet to announce a date for the special election.
Board members Jacqueline Gray and Brian Clark voted against the bond issue motion, which was called for by board vice president Robert Barksdale and seconded by president Jane Kilgore.
The bond will not lead to a tax increase, according to Lowndes County tax assessor Greg Andrews and board consultant Jim Young.
If passed, the $44 million bond will include: $11 million for a centralized career-technical center; $26 million for a new high school on the New Hope campus; $3 million for upgrades and additions at the Caledonia campus; $1.9 million for a new field house at Caledonia; and $2 million for renovations on the West Lowndes campus.
The board debated the issue Monday night, often disagreeing on what needed prioritizing.
LCSD faculty made a strong appeal for a centralized career-technical center, which the board had been considering leaving out. Assistant superintendent Dr. Robin Ballard and Caledonia High School Advanced Placement and GED program coordinator Melissa Suddith stressed the importance of a centralized career-tech facility to the board, and demonstrated that adding currently unavailable career-tech programs at each individual high school would cost twice as much.
“The bias against vocational education is dysfunctional and destructive to our children,” Suddith said. “They should have an opportunity to be trained in whatever skill their natural gifts and purposes lead them to, rather than condemning them to a job they find meaningless.”
The board seemed to agree that the public — which rejected a $47 million bond in August — was unlikely to approve the same now. The board felt that without a tax increase, the public would get behind this new proposed bond issue.
“I know why it got rejected the first time,” board attorney Jeff Smith said. “People thought their taxes would go up. If you don’t have the bond issue, you don’t get anything.”
Joey Henderson, the architect behind the project, made a call to Young during the meeting. Young, on speaker phone, told the board there would be no new taxes needed for a $39 or $44 million bond.
“My gut feeling is, you’re going to need every dollar you can get,” Young said. “If there won’t be a tax increase for the $39 or the $44 (million), we go for the $44.”
Clark voted against the bond because he felt the public would still reject it. Gray made it clear that West Lowndes does not want $2 million for renovations, but rather $10.3 million for a new middle school.
Community member and former Lowndes County supervisor Mike Smith said the key to passing the bond is reaching older voters.
“What we’ve got to do is make sure older folks understand that we’re not going to raise taxes,” Smith said.
Superintendent Lynn Wright said he was glad to finally have the bond issue decided on.
“Now, we can do this,” Wright said. “It’s not going to be a tax increase and it will benefit our kids for years to come.”
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