Land purchases, new school designs top a $4 million Fort Mill list. Here are the details
Land and design work for new schools topped a more than $4 million list of capital projects approved Tuesday night by the Fort Mill school board.
More than two dozen projects span 11 of the 20 district schools, plus transportation and new school planning. The largest item is an estimated $1.75 million for land acquisition for future schools. Another $300,000 goes to early site design work for a seventh district middle school. Early design for two new elementary schools, the 12th and 13th in the district, is on the list at $200,000.
Dollar amounts on the itemized list are all estimates. Money comes from what’s called the 8% bond issue, a funding mechanism used for medium-size projects. It typically runs about $4 million a year.
“We’re allowed to borrow (up to) 8% of the assessed value without going out for a vote,” said Joe Romenick, assistant superintendent of facilities and operations.
Smaller capital projects can be worked into the district’s annual operating budgets. Larger ones, like new schools, typically require a community referendum vote. The 8% funding mechanism hits in the middle.
Romenick said money for early design work on new schools would save a year, from a three- to a two-year buildout, if schools are approved in future bonds.
“No matter what, we’re going to need new schools, so that money is never going to be thrown out the window,” Romenick said.
The itemized list of 8% projects on Tuesday night lists the early design work on middle and elementary schools helping sites to open by fall 2025.
The district typically issues 8% bonds each year, with payback in three to five years. The decision Tuesday is for $4.1 million, but the bond issue will be $4.9 million once it includes an annual interest payment the district already approved for school construction.
A desire by the district to keep debt millage consistent for another year will put payback on a similar timeline to recent years.
“This would be a three-year payback,” said Leanne Lordo, district CFO and associate superintendent of finance and operations. “The initial plan was that we would do a more aggressive payback.”
The bond will go to market later this month.
There are moving parts to debt millage and taxing questions, like county assessment figures and potential news on district impact fees. Money from impact fees, or charges on new residential construction that schools can use for capital needs, has been tied in litigation multiple times since fees increased in 2018.
First there was a suit from homebuilder groups that challenged the fee. Now, there is a case involving the school district and county to determine exact eligible uses of impact fee money. At whatever point it’s determined how the district can use the money, there could be savings to taxpayers.
Total impact fee collections to date, as of Tuesday’s meeting, is more than $50 million. More than $1 million came in just in March.
“We’re running those numbers, and it would be tremendous for our taxpayers,” Lordo said.
The 8% list approved on Tuesday includes items beyond new school planning, from two new school buses to a new sink in a school work room, restroom upgrades, windows and paint. Some items are more visible than others, like the monument sign replacement at Nation Ford High School.
Fort Mill High School, the oldest of three district high schools, has the most total projects with five. Included is new heavy duty pavement for the bus loop, which originally was designed for car traffic.
Banks Trail Middle School will get a new sidewalk from its football to baseball concessions area. Fort Mill Middle School gets replaced panel signs. Springfield Middle School gets an outdoor learning area.
