Indian Land parents want new schools. Will a countywide bond referendum pay for them?
Indian Land parents are making their case for new schools in Lancaster County’s panhandle. Ultimately, voters across the district will decide.
The Lancaster County School District began work months earlier this year to determine school needs, costs and possible options to bring up in a bond referendum. A board subcommittee targeted a late March 2024 referendum date.
Subcommittee chair and board member Melvin Stroble said public input on priorities is key, which led to a new stakeholder committee.
“The facility needs committee was a community driven group of folks who came together to look at what the potential needs were for the school district facilities across Lancaster County,” Stroble said.
Fred Witherspoon is one of the 14 members on that committee. A recent survey sent throughout the district aimed to help that group narrow down needs. Witherspoon is a product of the school district who said even his stakeholder group shouldn’t move forward alone with a list of improvements.
“Once we get feedback from everyone, they either confirm that we are right or bring up some interesting things that we may have overlooked,” Witherspoon said. “So it was indeed an eye opening experience.”
Mary Beth Braham with architectural firm LS3P presented recommendations from the facility needs committee to the school board. The committee based those recommendations on stakeholder meetings and results from the recent community survey.
“They kind of came up with those top needs that were recurring over and over again,” Braham said.
Indian Land school needs
There were about 850 survey responses. Almost 540 of them were from the Indian Land panhandle area. About three-quarters of Indian Land responses came from parents.
Panhandle recommendations include a new high school and new elementary school in the northernmost area of the district. Of note, Indian Land already has some of the newest schools in the district.
The new Indian Land High School opened in 2021. It was funded through the same 2016 referendum that built a new elementary school in Indian Land. Harrisburg Elementary School only dates back to 2014 and several long-time school facilities in Indian Land have changed school levels to adapt to growth.
Indian Land also has massive population growth, unprecedented in other parts of the county and, largely, throughout the region.
Other Indian Land items on the needs list include renovations at the middle and intermediate schools, athletic support space at the high school and a car loop extension at Indian Land Elementary School.
As with recommendations in other parts of the county, the presentation to the board didn’t prioritize needs against one another. There also weren’t price tags attached, or an indication how many of the needs might yet make a referendum ballot.
Lancaster, Buford, Kershaw needs
Most of the survey responses that weren’t from Indian Land came from the Lancaster area. About 200 responses came from teachers. It was the same in the much smaller response area of Kershaw.
Only the smaller response area of Buford saw mostly parents respond, at more than a third of responses, the way Indian Land did.
Lancaster responses call for a new elementary school to replace Clinton Elementary School, and renovations at Lancaster High School, South Middle School, Brooklyn Springs Elementary School and the Discovery School, plus library expansion at McDonald Green Elementary School.
Kershaw requested a new 1,000-student elementary school and renovations at Andrew Jackson High School and Andrew Jackson Middle School, including the addition of a high school gym.
Buford added a new middle school to replace its existing one and high school renovations.
All four areas had various support facility upgrades on their lists. District-wide needs include more cameras, activity buses and a satellite maintenance facility in the panhandle area.
Next steps
The school board didn’t vote on the recommendations list. They haven’t yet voted to set up a bond referendum or on details related to it. The board would need to bring on bond counsel and go through its typical process, including a public hearing, to approve any bond referendum date or question.
