Mecklenburg County voters will decide Nov. 7 whether to approve the largest school bond package in North Carolina. Here’s a roundup of what you need to know about the $2.5 billion in bonds for Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools.
The package
CMS plans to deliver 30 projects using bond money. That includes new middle schools in Huntersville, south and southwest Charlotte; a new health-sciences magnet high school in uptown Charlotte, a new regional athletic facility in west Charlotte that many schools can use for tournaments and swim meets; and 25 renovation and replacement projects.
Replacement schools are new buildings for existing schools, usually built on the same site. One example funded with previous bond money is the new West Charlotte High building, which opened last year.
Some of the projects involve more than one school, such as those that will relocate multiple Montessori or arts magnets.
The compromise
This project list originally came in at $3 billion with anticipated inflation factored in. County officials said that was too much and asked for a $2.5 billion plan. Rather than eliminate projects, CMS designated six as “design only.” That means CMS will use the bond money to plan them, but will have to come back to the county for money to complete them. CMS planner Dennis LaCaria told the school board the new money will be needed in 2029.
The design-only projects are the regional athletic facility; expansion of E.E. Waddell High; renovations to J.T. Williams school; and replacement of Cochrane, South Charlotte Middle and Villa Heights Elementary.
The need
Some of the buildings being replaced are 40 or 50 years old. CMS officials say they’re a detriment to learning and safety. Classrooms may not be conducive to up-to-date technology, lack windows and have noisy, unreliable heating and air-conditioning systems. Old buildings often have multiple doors, which makes it harder to protect against intruders. Old high schools are often spread across several buildings, each with entrances and exits. New ones are one building with limited access, making it easier to screen students for weapons and control who enters.
Coping with growth isn’t as big a factor as it has been in some previous bond campaigns, when CMS was adding 3,000 to 5,000 students a year and playing catch-up to relieve intense crowding. Now districtwide enrollment is flattening, but schools in some areas remain crowded. Many replacement and renovation projects will add classrooms and reduce reliance on trailers.
The price tag
When voters approve bonds it’s like opening a line of credit for CMS. The county borrows the money in installments, and taxpayers have to repay it over the course of several years — with interest.
County officials estimate they’ll need three one-cent property tax increases over the next five years to cover the CMS debt payments. Each will add $40 to the tax bill for a $400,000 home, for a total of $120 in additional property taxes by 2029. (Lower-value properties will see smaller increases and higher-value ones will pay more.)
The ballot
Voters can’t pick and choose which projects they want to pay for. The only question on the ballot is whether $2.5 billion in school bonds should be approved.
The school board has a volunteer Bond Oversight Committee that monitors whether the district honors the promises made during bond campaigns.
The ‘Vote Yes’ campaign
The Coalition for a Better 2050, created by the Charlotte Regional Business Alliance, is running the “Vote Yes” campaign. Finance reports are due this week, and until then the campaign declines to discuss its budget or details of its strategy.
David Longo, one of three co-chairs and CEO of CBI Workplace Solutions, says the campaign is strategically targeting voters who are likely to show up for an off-year election, which traditionally generate a turnout of 20% or less. He says the campaign emphasizes the benefits to students, communities and economic development.
“If we’re recruiting businesses or we want businesses to grow in the community, we have to be able to have quality education for our students,” he said. “They’re the future of all businesses and they’re the future of growth here.”
Longo says he realizes tax increases are unpopular, but he said voting no will simply delay the reckoning: “Act now and deal with any type of very moderate tax increase that we have to deal with, or we wait til later and it’s just going to get more painful and the numbers are just going to get bigger.”
The ‘Vote No’ campaign
A group called The African American Clergy Coalition is running a “Vote No” campaign, though as of Monday it had not filed the required paperwork for a political action committee. The clergy alliance has much of the same leadership as the African American Faith Alliance for Educational Advancement.
The Rev. Ricky Woods, one of the “Vote No” leaders, says many Black property owners and tenants can’t afford an additional tax increase. This year’s county revaluation fell especially hard on property owners in the close-in, traditionally lower-income Charlotte neighborhoods known as “the crescent,” which have seen land and home prices shoot up in recent years.
Woods says if the bonds fail, CMS will have to scale back and slow down its construction plans to ease the taxpayer burden. He says options could include eliminating some projects, cutting things like costly athletic field projects at high schools or shifting some projects to the maintenance budget, rather than tearing down an old building to replace it.
Woods also disputes the idea that new construction will be an academic benefit to students in high-poverty, low-performing schools, some of which are already in new buildings.
“Continuing to try to make the case that somehow or another being in a new building is going to improve academic outcomes — that has not been the history in this city, with any new school that they have put up,” he said.
The fallback plan
If the bonds fail, CMS would likely ask the county to find another way to finance some of the most urgent needs — for instance, a south Charlotte middle school that’s scheduled to open in 2025 to relieve crowding at nearby schools. District leaders would then have to figure out how to build community support for a long-range investment.
That’s what happened in 2005, the last time Mecklenburg County voters rejected CMS bonds. A $427 million package — a record at the time — failed. CMS convened a group of community leaders that spent months, under the leadership of former Gov. James Martin, studying CMS construction and planning. The county paid for some urgent projects, and two years later voters approved $516 million in bonds, with different projects.
The lottery
Some people think CMS' construction needs should be covered by North Carolina’s Education Lottery. It does provide money for school construction — along with prekindergarten, transportation, college scholarships, other educational programs and, of course, prizes and expenses. The lottery reportsthat Mecklenburg County got $10.9 million for school construction last year. That’s not enough to build even one new school and would cover only the least-expensive renovation project on the list, at Marie G. Davis School.
The other needs
The county’s capital budget includes $1.5 billion for construction at Central Piedmont Community College and other county facilities, such as parks and libraries. But county officials decided not to ask voters to approve bonds for those projects.
More resources
Still want to know more? Here are some links:
- Mecklenburg County early voting and Election Day information.
- WFAE’s bond coverage (including a Charlotte Talks episode with CMS Superintendent Crystal Hill, County Manager Dena Diorio, “Vote Yes” co-chair Mary McCray and “Vote No” advocate Ricky Woods discussing bonds).
- CMS bond information.
- “Vote Yes” bond information.
