Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 15, 1995 TAG: 9503150034
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: BRIAN KELLEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG LENGTH: Medium
School Superintendent Herman Bartlett and a top deputy briefed the county Board of Supervisors Monday about the initial, four-school phase of a 20-year building plan.
The new buildings proposed to be constructed by 1999 include a $7 million elementary school in Riner, middle schools in Blacksburg and Christiansburg at $20.6 million, and a $6.27 million high school in Shawsville. Bartlett is developing several payment proposals and said he is open to suggestions.
Supervisors Chairman Larry Linkous and others said they will discuss putting a school-building bond referendum before the voters sometime in the future.
"I like the idea of a bond referendum, that the voters can decide," Supervisor Nick Rush said Tuesday. But "I'm not sure when."
Many local politicos are worried about November's crowded ballot. In Montgomery, a state Senate race, two House races, four supervisors races, four first-time School Board elections and four countywide offices including sheriff and prosecutor will compete for voters' attention in the various election districts.
The first part of the school-building program, which the School Board OK'd in January, is designed to handle a nearly 20 percent increase in student population expected in the next decade.
The space crunch is so bad that school administrators say they will be forced to nearly double the number of trailers used as classrooms, from 29 to as many as 53 in five years.
The supervisors - who would have the task of paying for such a program - didn't ask many questions Monday. That was primarily because Bartlett was ill and they didn't want to keep him any longer than necessary.
But after the meeting, Linkous said the board will discuss the issue again in coming weeks.
"The board's going to have to decide if we endorse [the report] and if we agree with this need," Linkous said.
If building-by-borrowing seems to be favored, then Linkous said, board members will have to wrestle with a number of questions. How soon should they put a referendum on the ballot? How would it affect the county's bond rating? How much of a tax-rate increase will be required to pay for debt service?
The board hasn't discussed a school-building bond issue yet. But several supervisors expressed interest when questioned about the idea.
"Given all the [residential] building that's going on right at the moment, that might be a good next step, to see what the voters think about it," Supervisor Jim Moore said.
"We'll have to see which way is the best way to finance it," Rush said. "I don't believe we could do $34 million worth in a one- or two-year period."
"Any time you talk about a program like they're proposing, you have to talk about funding," said Supervisor Henry Jablonski. He wants more information on how solid the data is that supports predictions of increased enrollment by 2006. He also pointed out Monday that while school population dropped by several hundred between 1977 and the mid-1980s, the number of classroom spaces increased by more than 1,000. "That shows a degree of mandates or regulations without funding," he said.
Montgomery has paid for two new elementary schools so far this decade with bond issues: $6 million for Kipps Elementary, which opened last year; and $5.14 million for Falling Branch Elementary, which opened in September 1992. The county borrowed money for both those schools through the Virginia Public School Authority, which purchases general obligation bonds from localities and pools the bonds for resale, thus making them more marketable and less costly because of better interest rates. They do not require voter approval.
Dan Morris, the school system's finance director, noted four typical methods to finance new schools in a Jan. 20 memo to Bartlett. Aside from VPSA bonds, they include voter-approved bonds, borrowing from the state literary fund (it typically has the lowest interest rates but has had little money to lend in recent years) and direct cash appropriation from a governing body.
One possibility could be a mixture of financing to pay for new buildings, combining voter-approved borrowing with one of the other types, Morris said.
by CNB