The Effingham Board of Education has outlined how it would like to spend up to $60 million, including $15 million in bonds, which would be generated by a new round of penny-per-dollar sales tax.
The bond money would permit the district to begin projects before the sales tax money is collected. Proceeds from the sales tax would pay for the bonds.
Vot
ers will be asked on Nov. 3 to approve the Education Special-Purpose Local Option (ESPLOST) tax for a fifth five-year period. The current ESPLOST expires in June 2017.
Topping the spending list are $18 million for a new Rincon Elementary School and $7 million for a Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) academy at the Effingham College and Career Academy.
The STEM lab would double the size of the Career Academy. Groundbreaking is set for Oct. 9 and the new space would open in fall of 2016.
The new Rincon Elementary School would open fall 2017.
The approval of the bond money does not necessarily mean all of it will be used but it will be available if needed.
“With the STEM academy opening in 2016 and the new Rincon Elementary opening in 2017, we need to make sure we have enough funds for these two projects,” said Superintendent Randy Shearouse. “In addition, we could move ahead with our safety vestibules, agricultural center and air-conditioned buses.”
Over five years, the district also would spend $5 million for buses, $4 million for maintenance, $4 million for technology and $4 million for textbooks. Another $1 million would go for new heating, ventilation and air conditioning at Effingham County High School (ECHS).
Those expenses are spending priorities that the board already has established. “There is a fairly firm commitment of expenditures of $59 million,” said Slade Helmly, executive director of administrative services.
Possible projects include $2 million for an agriculture center, $2 million for a field house at ECHS, $1 million for air conditioning on all school buses, $750,000 for security vestibules at schools and $300,000 worth of track improvements.
The security vestibules would be like the one at South Effingham Elementary School, where staff members buzz in all visitors.
The school district has been setting aside $250,000 a month during the current, fourth ESPLOST cycle for future projects. That fund totals more than $9 million that has already been set aside and will total $15 million when the current ESPLOST ends.
The spending lists don’t include proceeds from the sale of the current Rincon Elementary School.
Voters in Effingham have approved ESPLOST for four five-year periods so far, never turning it down.