Source: The Daily News, Jacksonville, N.儲存倉C.Sept. 21--Onslow County Schools took its message to the people this week.A meeting Thursday night was the first of eight presentations for a proposed $75 million capital improvement program approved by Onslow County Board of Education.County voters will decide the program's fate during the Nov. 5 election.On sample ballots from Onslow County Board of Elections, the program is listed under "Referendum" as Onslow County School Bonds.Voters have final authority in bond referendums -- requests by public agencies to borrow money for capital projects.School officials say the bonds would fund: safety and security at the county's 37 schools; replace Dixon Middle and Richlands Elementary schools, which were built in the 1920s; and fund major scheduled maintenance, according to a presentation Thursday by Barry Collins, Onslow County Schools' associate superintendent of human resources and student services.The security upgrades -- which would cost $6 million -- include plans for enhanced cameras and monitoring systems; new door locks and scan card readers at school entries; and new tools to check identifications.Construction of the new Dixon Middle School would cost $28 million; replacing Richlands Elementary School would cost $25 million.The remaining $16 million would go to maintenance of chillers, HVAC systems, asphalt surfaces, roofing and windows.According to Assistant Superintendent of Auxiliary Services Steve Myers, Dixon Middle and Richlands Elementary were built when North Carolina had no building codes.Myers said major renovations would require the district to bring the buildings up to current codes.The schools are overcrowded by Department of Public Instruction standards, he said, and renovations would require about 30 mobile classrooms."These students would be in a mobile classroom for one to two years while we renovate," Myers said.The land for the new schools was bought with money approved in the 2006 bond referendum."The next phase of that is we have to build the schools," Myers said.Onslow Schools are required to get the construction permits for Dixon Middle School by May 2015 or they will lose 30 acres donated for the project and be required to sell back the 10 acres purchased for $800,000 at 85 percent the market value, he said.Collins said that many people ask why the buildings cannot be paid for with funds from the North Carolina Education Lottery. He explained those funds -- a little less than $2 million to the county each year over the last six years -- go to paying down existing debt service. Saving the lottery funds to build a school would take 13 years, he said."We can't wait," he said. "We can't afford to wait."Collins said that the Board of Education has opted to postpone building two new elementary schools due to potential effects from the military drawdown and to give them time to see how the military will affect schools over the next few years. However, he also said that the school system will need to revisit the increase in student enrollment "at some point."Jacksonville resident Melissa Smith hadn't heard of the school bond referendum before attending the meeting at Jacksonville Commons Elementary School this week. Smith said she attended the presentation that was held before the school's open house simply to see what construction was coming to the schools and to make sure i迷你倉 wouldn't adversely affect her second grade student, Lilliana. The family recently moved from Texas where Smith said Lilliana moved from school to school due to construction and, as a result, she was held back."I wanted to know what was going on with that," she said.Smith said that the presentation made sense of the bond referendum, which she said residents don't always get a clear picture of from the media."Here they were straight to the point on how it would affect our kids," she said.Mark Sullivan, who has a kindergarten student at Jacksonville Commons Elementary, "stumbled into" the meeting before the open house and said he would recommend the meetings to anyone, especially homeowners."Anyone with a kid or a homeowner ... If you're going to be a homeowner in this county, you're going to pay the property tax," he said.According to Collins, the property tax would increase 3.4 cents per $100 valuation if the bond referendum is approved. The Onslow County property tax is currently 58.5 cents per $100 valuation.With the average home in Onslow County valued at $178,700, he said the average homeowner will see an increase of $60.76 in his or her annual tax bill if this bond referendum is approved.Richard Keith no longer has children in school, but the 70-year-old Onslow County resident said he attended the meeting because, if it passes, the referendum will increase his property tax. He also worries that if the school board has future bond referendums, the property tax will increase even more."For people on fixed incomes, retirees like us, that's big bucks," Keith said.Keith, who said a sales tax increase would have been fair to area residents, suggests that others attend future meetings to learn about the bond referendum before heading to the polls in November "if they want to have some wisdom behind their vote."School officials say they were happy with the turnout. The school's multipurpose room, where the meeting was held, was nearly full."I think our first public bond presentation went very well and was well attended," said Suzie Ulbrich, the school system's public information assistant. "We were able to reach many parents since the school held the presentation in conjunction with their open house. We have scheduled these presentations throughout the district in hopes that voters will attend so they are informed about the upcoming bond referendum, have the opportunity to ask questions, and will ultimately make an informed vote come the November election."The next meeting will be held on Sept. 26 at Carolina Forest Elementary at 5 p.m.Onslow County Schools is hosting several meetings on the proposed $75 million Capital Improvement Program that would replace two schools, update security and safety measures at all schools and fund major scheduled maintenance.Meetings will be he:? 5 p.m. Sept. 26 at Carolina Forest Elementary? 6 p.m. Sept. 30 at Swansboro Middle School? 7 p.m. Oct. 7 at White Oak High School? 6 p.m. Oct. 9 at Dixon High School? 6 p.m. Oct. 10 at Richlands High School? 6 p.m. Oct. 14 at Southwest High School? 6 p.m. Oct. 21 at Jacksonville High SchoolAmanda Hickey is the government reporter at The Daily News. She can be reached at amanda.hickey@jdnews.com.Copyright: ___ (c)2013 The Daily News (Jacksonville, N.C.) Visit The Daily News (Jacksonville, N.C.) at .jdnews.com Distributed by MCT Information Services迷你倉最平
留言列表
