January 28, 2020
By: Dwayne Page
The Board of Education will have to make the next move on going forward with a plan for new schools.
During Monday night’s regular monthly meeting, the county commission voted unanimously to send a letter to the Board asking for more details on their latest proposal before granting a request for funding.
Earlier this month Director of Schools Patrick Cripps delivered a letter on behalf of the school board to County Mayor Tim Stribling and the County Commission making a request for funding of at least a minimum of $48,685,000 to build 2 Pre K-8 schools and to make renovations to Northside Elementary converting it a Pre K-8. “ We are seeking your approval of funding to proceed with land purchase and the school building project,” said Cripps in the letter.
County Mayor Stribling placed the board’s request on the agenda for Monday night’s commission meeting for discussion.
First district commissioner and chairman of the budget committee Dennis Slager moved to deny the request until the school board provides a detailed project description, total project cost, and other costs that will directly affect the overall school board budget. Fifth district commissioner Jerry Adcock offered a second to Slager’s motion.
The exact wording of Slager’s motion, which he had in writing, is as follows:
“I move that the DeKalb County Commission acknowledge the request for funding from the DeKalb County Board of Education for a minimum of $48 million for a new proposed school project, that a letter be sent to the Board of Education and Director of Schools, stating that this request is denied. This request is inadequate and only a detailed project description, total project cost, and other costs that will directly affect the overall school board budget will be considered. The DeKalb County Commission stands ready to consider and fund a school building project that meets the current needs of the county’s school system that is financially feasible and reasonable for the taxpayers of DeKalb County”.
Concerned that the word “denied” might be too strong, seventh district commissioner Beth Pafford offered an amendment to Slager’s motion to replace the word “denied” with the phrase “will not be considered until” (the board provides more details). Pafford’s motion was approved on a 12-2 vote with Slager and third district commissioner Bobby Johnson voting against it. Slager’s motion as amended was then approved 14-0.
Prior to the vote, fourth district commissioner Janice Fish-Stewart cautioned against the commission sending the wrong signal to constituents. “I just want to say I want to be certain that we are not known as the commission that does not want to fund schools. I want the school board to know that this commission more than any commission before in my opinion believes that we need schools. We need a lot of things in this county. A lot of things have gone undone for a good number of years. We stand ready, willing, and able to find adequate funding for schools and anything else this county needs. I want it to be understood we want to help build schools but we can’t build schools until such time as we know the who, the where, the when, the how, and how much. We are going to make sound decisions for the people of DeKalb County and we are going to get the schools and education our children need,” she said.
Pafford added that a request by the commission for more details does not mean it won’t support new schools.
“We appreciate what the school board has done to this point and we stand prepared to work with them but as the funding body for new schools we (county commission) do need to see some more solid information before we move forward on funding,” she said.
Although the board’s request is for a minimum of $48 million the actual cost could be exceedingly more.
Commissioner Jerry Adcock said he thought the board’s costs estimates for the plan were “way out of line” with a similar proposal two years ago and that a minimum cost of $48 million would require at least a 50 cent property tax increase, “That is a lot of money for a lot of people. The board should get in line with what we can afford,” said Adcock.
“I think the school board should meet with the budget committee because this is premature. We don’t know how much it is going to cost or what they are asking for. They should go to the budget committee, meet with them, and let the budget committee decide whether or not we can fund it. I think that is the proper way to go about this,” said third district commissioner Jenny Trapp.
“As a member of the budget committee I think it is an area we need to start pursuing to see where we are at in DeKalb County as to what we can afford financially,” added second district commissioner Sabrina Farler.
“I am in favor of working with the Board of Education. As chairperson of the education committee I would love to set up a meeting with them and inquire more. We have several questions that we need further information on,” said fifth district commissioner Anita Puckett.
Last Thursday night during a work session, County Mayor Stribling gave the commission an idea of what a bond issue for a school building project of the size being proposed would look like.
“Our (county commission) only role is to decide whether we want to issue a bond. If we were to issue a bond of $52, 750,000 on 25 years our debt payment would be a minimum of about $3 million a year depending upon the interest rate at the time of issuance,” said County Mayor Stribling.
Available money or new revenue needed to pay off that debt is also something the county commission must consider.
The county is already paying debt on other bond issues including for expansion of DeKalb West School and for school energy conservation work done by Johnson Controls several years ago and for the purchase of the county complex and post closure of the landfill. Those debts are expected to be paid off by 2025 and 2029.