Fort Mill school bond committee sets public meeting dates

The committee of residents raising awareness of the Fort Mill school district’s May 5 bond referendum will hold two meetings in April.

The meetings are scheduled for 7 p.m. April 8 at Unity Presbyterian Church, 303 Tom Hall St., Fort Mill, and 7 p.m. April 22 at Forest Hill Church, 2099 Carolina Place Drive, Fort Mill, behind Lowe’s.

Kristy Spears is the co-chair of Keep Our Schools Strong, which is promoting passage of the $226.8 million proposal. She said the committee has met with some parent-teacher organizations, but it wants to reach a larger audience.

The meetings are expected to last about 90 minutes and include a PowerPoint presentation and a question-and-answer period. School district officials will also be on hand to answer questions, she said.

“We want to present the community with the facts, what’s included in the bond (package), why it’s critical to the community, the benefits and what happens if it fails,” Spears said.

The other committee co-chairs are Sharyn Lewis, Brian Murphy and Leigh Van Blarcom.

Spears said the committee empathizes with residents who are weary of Fort Mill’s growth issues but wants them to understand the school district has no control over how many new homes are built. The district is, however, responsible for educating the children enrolled in its schools.

“We have to fit those kids into our existing footprint,” she said.

The Fort Mill school board voted unanimously Feb. 17 to approve a resolution for a $226.8 million bond referendum. Voters will be asked May 5 to approve the bond issue, which would fund construction of a third high school, another middle school, an aquatics center and other capital improvements. If the measure passes, the owner of the average Fort Mill-area home – worth about $230,000, according to the York County Assessor’s Office – would pay about $277 more a year in property taxes.

The board took a separate vote to establish that if an item is not completed by the district, the money set aside for that item would not be used. If the district decides not to build an aquatics center, that $9.9 million, though authorized, would not be raised by selling bonds.

The district is expected to grow to 20,000 students by the 2023-2024 school year, according to a recent 10-year facilities study.

“The bottom line is we’ve got 12,000 homes coming into this area,” board member Tom Audette said after the February vote. “The growth is here, it’s coming and this is where we’re at.”

Also at that meeting, the board heard a presentation by Mike Vead with the Catawba Regional Council of Governments. He reported that projections indicate the district’s student enrollment would increase by 5.5 percent between now and September, bringing the district’s total enrollment to nearly 13,000 students.

Fort Mill school district residents last went to the polls for a bond referendum in 2013. Voters overwhelmingly – 3,229 to 698 – approved a $54 million bond issue to relocate Riverview Elementary School, expand both high schools, and pay for athletic turf and districtwide technology and security improvements.

Herald reporter Rachel Southmayd and Fort Mill Times reporter John Marks contributed to this story.

This story was originally published March 27, 2015 at 3:34 PM with the headline "Fort Mill school bond committee sets public meeting dates."