Bond Projects

A $25 million school bond referendum in Haywood County scheduled for May 3 will be used to pay for the following projects. While the total exceeds $25 million, the preliminary estimates are generous and it is hoped that savings will be found to bring the cost within budget, according to school officials.

• $16.2 million — A new Bethel Elementary School for 600 students.

• $2 million — Expansion of North Canton Elementary.

• $1.5 million — Expansion of Clyde Elementary.

• $1.5 million — Expansion of Riverbend Elementary.

• $1.9 million — New Pisgah High School gymnasium on existing school property.

• $2.4 million — New Tuscola High School gymnasium on land to be purchased.

• $1.2 million — Completion of air conditioning systems at Canton and Waynesville middle schools.

• $950,000 — New baseball and softball fields shared by Pisgah High School and Canton Middle School.

• $ 800,000: Flood damage repairs to Central Haywood High School and Canton Middle School band building.

Haywood County commissioners are asking residents to put their stamp of approval on a $25 million school bond so the county can get a cheaper interest rate. The bond vote is tentatively set for May 3.

The bond will finance construction of the new Bethel Elementary, additions at three other elementary schools, improvements to high school and middle school sports fields and gyms, air conditioning at the last of the county’s middle schools and flood repairs not covered by the federal government.

Haywood County commissioners unanimously said at a meeting last week that they support the school projects and will fund them regardless of whether the school bond passes. However, if the public passes the bond the county will get a lower interest rate than if it borrows the money through a more conventional loan.

In a joint workshop with commissioners last Tuesday (Jan. 11), the Haywood County School Board thanked them for being willing to stay on top of student growth rather than letting it pile up and reach a crisis situation.

“If we don’t catch up now, we’ll never catch up,” said outgoing School Superintendent Bill Upton.

This set of projects primarily targets the increase in elementary school students, who will soon move up the ladder creating a demand for new schools at the upper grades. Upton said the county will need a third high school down the road and another middle school.

Overcrowded schools can hamper teacher recruitment. Some teachers at the cramped elementary schools do not have permanent classrooms but rove about the school with a cart and teach in whatever vacant space the school can find each period.

Paying for schools

Commissioner Chairman Mark Swanger was insistent that property taxes will not go up to pay for the bond.

“This will not be coming out of property tax revenue. This is sales tax revenue,” Swanger said.

The county gets approximately $2 million a year from a half-cent sales tax, which by state mandate must be spent on school capital projects, whether it’s repairing roofs or building brand new schools. For the past six years, the revenue from that half-cent sales tax has been used to pay off construction of the Hazelwood and Clyde elementary schools.

The debt on those schools will be paid off in early 2006, freeing it up to pay for the new projects just as the first debt payment come due on the bond — or loan if the bond doesn’t pass. Julie Davis, the county finance director, said the timing is not merely a stroke of good luck. The new Bethel Elementary School was planned around the use of that half-cent sales tax becoming available.

While the $26 million school debt will eat up all of the $2 million generated by the half-cent sales tax for several years, the sales tax will inevitably increase overtime. Meanwhile, the debt payments will decrease. Davis structures the debt schedule with heftier payments up front to pay down the principle quickly, and thus reduce the net interest that will be paid over the 15-year life of the note.

The half-cent sales tax historically increased about 3 percent a year during the 1990s, but has been unpredictable since the economic slowdown set in about four years ago.