Please share with your friends! I would like to repost this again due to incorrect information circulating about via web and hard copies to community businesses and to citizens. I was privy to read an email circulating about by Mr. Beckham’s and would like to respond to the snap shot information shared with each recipient. The school board spent the past two years working on this referendum during public meetings. It was a very transparent process in which the school district has been acknowledge numerous time by county council regarding our transparency of issues. There were 42 separate discussions during School Board meetings in addition to the 40+ public meetings held by Dr. Morgan and other staff to elicit public input regarding our schools, options for improvements and the referendum. Having said all that, I would like to respond to the previous email: • Last March, the School Board, County Council, and Central Carolina held a joint public meeting to discuss the Joint Economic Development Campus out near I-20. (There was a huge article about the meeting on the front page of the Chronicle.) Council and the School Board agreed that this joint campus, which would combine and streamline all the county’s workforce development efforts, would be a game breaker in terms of attracting new business and industry to Kershaw County, business and industry that will increase the tax base and reduce the dependence on property taxes…This facility will also generate revenue for local merchants in Camden…If there are 1,000 students per day there and each spends $10 per day, the economic impact for local merchants would be about $2.4 million per year. Part of the facility will also accommodate large meetings and retreats, which will also benefit local merchants • Zemp Stadium is landlocked. There is insufficient space to add a field house and other improvements to bring it to reasonable parity with LEHS and North Central. Even if Zemp could be reasonably renovated in these areas, the parking is still unpaved and unlighted, which is a significant safety issue. (There have been several injuries in the parking lot after games over the past two years.) A new stadium would give Camden the opportunity to host large track meets and band competitions, which would bring significant dollars into the community for local merchants and small businesses. The Roger Smoak Tennis Courts and a track are already at the Ehrenclou site, and there has been no issue because of the detention center. If you’ve seen the proposed site plan, there would be more than adequate paved and lighted parking next to the stadium to handle a large crowd safely, certainly more safely than Zemp does. The School Board has indicated its interest to work with the community on an adaptive reuse for Zemp. • $14,000,000 to consolidate the three North Central Schools is about $6 million less than it would take to bring these schools to code. Consolidating the schools will save (conservatively) over $600,000 per year in recurring money to be used for teacher salaries, supplies, books, technology, etc. It costs approximately $4000-5000 per student more to operate these schools. (By the way, new and renovated schools will also reduce operating costs for maintenance and utilities, allowing these funds to be aimed to classrooms…) Students will not spend hours on the bus. 70% of the students at Baron DeKalb are actually closer to where the new school would be. Redistricting and the use of two “express” buses will ensure that bus rides remain about where they are now, or better. Consolidating the schools will also enable the district to provide an equitable academic program for the students in the North Central area, which is not possible now because of the lack of economies of scale. • Referenda can only be done in general election years…. • The sales tax projection being used is very conservative, and was provided by the Board of Economic Advisors of the State of South Carolina. • I fully understand the purpose for how LEHS and CHS were built in the 90’s with the funding allowed for the two projects. Unfortunately, both high schools building have declined more than they should have over the past 22 years of wear and tear due to value engineering when they were built. I would encourage any person to walk the halls of either high school and take a firsthand look at the poor conditions. General maintenance is not enough for these buildings and the excessive maintenance they have taken is money from the classroom. The referendum would allow for our students to attend both schools without buckets throughout the buildings when it rains. I personally taught at LEHS and recall when it rained being able to push down on the floor tiles next to the windows and have the water come up through the floor. Our students deserve better. • The pie chart on the tax bill is inaccurate…Because of Act 388 and other tax credits, the school district’s portion of all property taxes is about 48%. The County takes the other 52%. Because of Act 388, no one pays property tax for school operations on a primary residence. • In the absence of the referendum passing, the School Board will have three choices… - Continue to “duct tape” problems and take resources out of classrooms to do so. Our budget is currently 83% people that work in schools…..the other 17% are relatively fixed costs. - Utilize the Board’s 8% taxing authority to generate funds to do some repairs, which will raise property taxes by 22+ mills forever (versus a 15-year duration sales tax). The Board can do this without referendum. - Seek additional operating millage through Council, which will significantly hurt business because of Act 388. I hope this information provides additional information and you share it with others as well. I do ask individuals seek out all the information and weigh the options before making a decision. Again, our children deserve better and our county has an opportunity to attract businesses for long term economic growth with the referendum. I ask you to Vote Yes Twice.
Posted on: Sun, 02 Nov 2014 21:27:17 +0000
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