HomeMy WebLinkAboutC.054.93009_1120bond. She said she saw the matter as two different issues. The
school system presented their request that was dependent on a
bond and the one that Commissioner Johnson presented was without
a bond and on a pay-as-you-go basis. She asked Mr. Johnson if
her analogy was correct. Mr. Johnson said it depended on timing.
An example would be for a $25 million bond, there's a gap of a
couple of years before available revenues permit one to service
the debt from a bond this large. Johnson advised that his
proposal wasn't totally on a pay-as-you-go basis. He mentioned
that he did try to determine what could be done without a tax
increase.
Commissioner Boone mentioned that the facility task force
study called for two bonds as well as a five -cent supplementary
tax.
Commissioner Stewart noted that the five -cent tax was based
on a vote of the people. Stewart said she felt the facilities
task force put together an accurate prioritization of the needs
of the school system.
Commissioner Madison said he had heard the facilities task
force had put together a PR piece for a bond package. Mr.
Madison said he felt the task force didn't prioritize anything.
Their report just put something in for everyone. He mentioned
that if prioritization had been done efforts could begin to start
correcting the problems at the top of the list. This would be
something similar to the Department of Transportation's road
improvement program.
Chairman Haire said that when she realized the Board was not
going to go along with the task force report she decided the
commissioners needed to pull something together because the
deadline to have something in Raleigh was December 15. The
Department of Public Instruction previously advised that if the
commissioners didn't approve their school systems' reports then
they were supposed to submit their own.
Commissioner Madison said the commissioners were not
approving the spending of any money. He asked Commissioner
Johnson if his report would satisfy the capital needs of the
Iredell-Statesville School System for the next 7-10 years.
Commissioner Johnson said probably not -- there was very
little in the report for future growth. He (Johnson) mentioned
that circumstances change, and he wanted to get past the point
where there was discussion on all of the needs and just focus on
what the number one need occurred to be. When revenues become
available then they should be dedicated to the top need.
Commissioner Boone said he graduated from Statesville High
School in 1967 and that enrollment from grades 1 - 12 (not
counting kindergarten because this didn't exist in the sixties)
was higher at this time than the number of public school children
in Iredell County enrolled today. The distribution, however, is
different because more students reside in the southern end of the
County.
MOTION by Commissioner Madison to adopt Mr. Johnson's
schedule of needs for the Iredell-Statesville School System and
submit on the proper forms to the State of North Carolina.
VOTING: Ayes - 4; Nays - 1 (Stewart)
Chairman Haire briefed the group on Mooresville's request.
The county manager said the square footage requested for the new
K-6 school would be 73,783 at $82.30 per sq. ft.
Vice Chairman Boone said he felt the square footage amounts
given to the State for Mooresville should be consistent with the
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