Financing school district’s building projects will be discussed Sept. 27

A new Blacksburg High ninth grade addition and Limestone Learning Center are at the top of the school board’s building wish list.

The district will present information on how to pay for the projects — without a tax increase — at its Sept. 27 school board meeting, superintendent Dr. Bill James said. The district is considering an investment financing plan similar to the one Greenville County is using to build 70 schools over a 7-year period.

Investment financing works much like a home mortgage with new schools paid off over time similar to a mortgage plan, James said. The schools are typically paid off over a 20-year period.

Berkeley, Lexington, and Newberry are among a handful of school districts statewide already using the Greenville financial arrangement to fund extensive building programs.

“We have been looking at this financial plan for three years,” James said. “It’s a way school districts have built a lot of schools without having to raise taxes.”

Southern Management, the district’s construction management firm, presented preliminary plans in August for a $5.18 million ninth grade addition at Blacksburg High. The plans would involve building a 2story, 30,000 square-foot addition containing 12 regular classrooms, two physical science labs, two special education classrooms, two resource rooms and an addition to the band room.

The addition would allow Blacksburg High School to accommodate another 360 students beyond the present 600 students who enrolled this school year. The school has run out of classroom space and is using two mobile units for classrooms this year.

“I’m concerned about the overcrowding at Blacksburg High School,” school trustee Donnie Lee Smith said. “I hope we can do something about the situation soon.”

The adult education and alternative programs at Limestone Learning Center have rapidly outgrown their present home in the former Limestone Elementary, school trustee Ola Copeland said. The district’s smallest elementary building is in serious need of repair.

“Something needs to be done,” she said. “It’s a disgrace.”

School trustees will prioritize the next building projects based on available funding and then make decisions on moving forward with the projects, school board chairperson Sandra Greene said.