Supt. warns failure would bring double sessions, even more trailers

By PAT NEWMAN
Staff Writer

The school pros have begun warning about the cons of defeating a $90 million special local option sales tax package headed for the voters Sept. 21.

Passage of a proposed $90 million special purpose local option sales tax and $50 million bond sale Sept. 21 would guarantee construction of 289 new classrooms, upgrade technology in the schools and district office, and provide security devices at all schools, school officials say.

Its defeat would result in more portable classrooms paid for out of the school system's operating budget, double sessions and year-round school, all possible options of dealing with continued student population growth, according to Fayette School Superintendent Dr. John DeCotis.

The two scenarios were outlined for about 40 parents, school teachers and administrators, local government officials and interested voters Saturday during a community roundtable discussion on the upcoming referendum.

The unanimous five-member school board made its official request to the U.S. Justice Department Thursday, calling for a special referendum on the question in less than two months.

DeCotis, who took over the job of superintendent just three months ago, told the group that he initially “wanted to wait” on proposing a SPLOST or bond issue, but discovered that the school system would lose $8 million in state education funds for construction of an elementary school and a middle school if the local board could not come up with its $12 million share.

“We're obligated to ask the voters, and if it fails (funding proposal), then we lose the money,” DeCotis said. “That's why we're moving faster than we normally would.” Construction contracts for the elementary school must be let by June 30, 2000, if Fayette County expects to collect the state money.

School finance director Jim Stephens said Fayette County is one of the few remaining counties in the state not to exercise the local option sales tax for the benefit of its schools. The state legislature passed a law several years ago allowing school districts to levy a tax.

While the board mounted a SPLOST initiative in 1997, the tax was voted down, resulting in the need to siphon off operating funds into unfinished projects like Peeples Elementary School and borrow money from the sale of bonds to complete Kedron Elementary and Rising Starr Middle School, according to DeCotis. “It put us behind the eight ball,” DeCotis said.

The proposed SPLOST calls for a 1 percent tax to be levied starting Jan. 1. Stephens said he expects the first collection to be received by the school district in March.

The added penny sales tax would be collected on top of an existing local option sales tax and the 4 percent state sales tax. While the state exempts groceries and certain other items from its sales tax, local merchants by state law do collect the current 1 percent local tax on all items, including groceries. The SPLOST, if approved in September, would add an additional penny to be collected on all retail items, for a total of six cents on the dollar.

In addition, the Fayette County Commission is considering calling for its own SPLOST to pay for a new jail and judicial complex, which — if approved by the voters in a future referendum — would hike the sales tax in Fayette to 7 percent.

The board has included a $50 million bond issue because money from the sales tax trickles in slowly at first, DeCotis said. “Retail people have a hard time getting it going,” he said. “This is so we can start all we want at the same time and get it done,” he explained.

“The $50 million will be paid off by SPLOST. We're asking for $90 million and we should have no problem getting it [if the sales tax is approved],” DeCotis said. “It's based on an 8 percent growth rate; it has been 15 percent the last few years,” he noted.

The package also calls for putting approximately $18 million in escrow for a new high school or other needed school. Stephens explained that the SPLOST would last five years or until the $90 million is collected, whichever occurs first.

The five-year plan for implementing $11.98 million in technology upgrades in the schools and district offices was questioned at length by those attending Saturday morning's open session. Janet Smola, fund raising director for the Joseph Sams School, wanted to know the reason for buying new computers instead of leasing them.

“Why are we buying equipment we know will be obsolete in five years? I don't know that I'll have the money in five years to continue leasing,” said Ed Steil, the school district's technology guru. The lease versus purchase option was an issue Steil and DeCotis said they would continue to explore. The current goal is to have one usable computer in every classroom. Steil said the new trend is for computers to be classroom based rather than lab based.

The proposed $90 million to be collected via the SPLOST will be spent for acquiring property to build the new schools, which will include two new elementary schools, a middle school and high school with funds for its construction to be held in an escrow account, plus renovations, improvements and additions at all existing schools totaling $77.5 million; a technology grant totaling $11.9 million and security devices totaling $1.7 million.