STARKVILLE – The new Starkville High School project now has a price tag and a bond issue to match.
During its regular meeting Tuesday at the Greensboro Center, the Starkville-Oktibbeha Consolidated School District Board of Trustees approved a resolution to issue a $101 million general obligation bond to fund the project, now estimated to cost $127 million in total.
The district still has the capacity to issue an extra $24 million for the project if needed.
Sumner Davis, board president, said those funds – in addition to $4 million the district received from the state earlier this year – will ensure the facility will meet the district’s needs for decades to come.
“Everybody on the board wants to make sure that we’re using our funds to get the most efficient and effective building we possibly can, understanding that this is a 50-year decision we’re making,” Davis told The Dispatch after the meeting on Tuesday. “… We are trying to do everything we can to ensure that we have the facility we need, but as evident by the discussion tonight, do it as effectively and efficiently as we possibly can.”
Tuesday’s approval, Davis said, marked the culmination of a yearslong planning process for the new high school, which started under former superintendent Eddie Peasant. But with the project now moving from planning to construction, some community members have raised concern about a lack of transparency from the district.
The facility will be located on the north edge of Mississippi State University’s campus, next to the district’s Partnership Middle School, on a tract donated by the university valued between $5 million and $10 million.
The design process for the campus is about 75% complete, Casey Rogers, president of ICM Construction, told the board on Wednesday, and the first of three phases is already underway, evident by the clear cut trees and fresh dirt visible to drivers on Highway 182.
That work, Rogers said, carries a price tag of $7.9 million.
Phase 2, which will include the classroom building, cafeteria and gymnasium, carries the highest price tag of the three, currently estimated at $99.2 million. Bids for Phase 2 will open in July, with construction to start later in the summer.
The final phase will include building a covered outdoor practice facility and a fieldhouse, though the district’s current athletic facilities on Yellow Jacket Drive will still be used for outdoor gamedays and events, Superintendent Tony McGee previously told The Dispatch. Indoor games will be played at the new gymnasium. Phase 3 is projected to cost $19.9 million with bids to open March 2027.
Those projections, combined with $3 million set aside for project contingencies, land the project at roughly $127 million, Rogers said.
“We counted every piece of steel we could. We counted every door,” Rogers said of the estimations. “… We reached out to about 20 different trade partners and got input from them. What is the cost of steel right now? What’s the cost of mechanical right now? What’s the cost of electrical? So we feel like this is good data.”
McGee said the estimations represent the district’s highest ambitions for the school, complete with all the “bells and whistles.”
“If we can get everything we wanted, this is what it would be,” he told The Dispatch after Tuesday’s meeting. “So we’ll start with that, and we’ll kind of work it backwards to make sure it fits our community.”
Some of that work has already started. McGee told the board he’s “challenged” ICM Construction with “trimming” costs where it can effectively, like swapping some building materials for more economical options.
Those efforts and “hopefully” lower bids, McGee said, may bring that total projected cost down.
“If (the projected cost is) still not exactly where we want them to be, we’ll go back and put a pencil and paper together and see, are there changes we can make to lower the cost to what we feel is feasible for us?” he said.
District taxes to increase
Despite trimming and potentially lower bids, both McGee and Davis acknowledged the project will come with a tax bill increase for property owners in the district.
“I’ll be real honest with you, I don’t want to pay any more property taxes than I need to, … and I’m sure everybody in this community feels the exact same way,” Davis told The Dispatch. “But at the same time, we’ve got to do what we’ve got to do.”
Exactly how much of an increase remains unclear, McGee said, partly because it hinges on a property reassessment by the Oktibbeha County tax assessor, which could increase property values by 18-20%.
“Hopefully we’ll have something for the community soon,” McGee said.
Citizens concerned about transparency
Speaking on behalf of the Oktibbeha County branch of the NAACP during citizens’ comments on Tuesday, Lisa Wilson urged the board to be more proactive in communicating with the public as the project moves forward.
While she emphasized support for the new high school and the positive impact it will have on future students of the district, Wilson said community members have been made to be spectators of the project rather than stakeholders.
“We’re deeply concerned about the significant steps that have been taken without clear communication to the taxpayers and the families who will ultimately be financially impacted through the potential (tax) increase,” she said.
“We understand that some planning must take place, but when you’re talking about a project over $100 million, then there should be some information shared with the community,” she added. “When visible activity begins before the public understands the cost, the financing and the long-term impact, it creates a perception that the decisions have already been made, and we’re just going to tell you about it later on. That weakens trust.”
McGee told The Dispatch the district has held off on presenting to the public to avoid sharing details that are subject to change before a final design is set.
“We want to make sure whatever we present to the public, that’s the final design,” he said. “We don’t want to take something to anybody and then have to come back and say, ‘Well, no, that wasn’t really (it).”
As construction ramps up this summer, McGee said the district will begin providing more information to community members.
“Any time we hear that there’s concern that we may be lacking in some areas, we always want to try to address those,” he said. “If we have anybody that feels like there’s not full transparency there, we want to try to make that possible.”
McRae is a general assignment and education reporter for The Dispatch.
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