2020 Iredell County School Bond Referendum

There are two bonds on the March 3^rd ballot.  The Iredell County School Bonds is a K-12 education bond for the Mooresville Graded School District and Iredell-Statesville School District.  The total cost of this bond is $115 million.  The Iredell County Community College Bond is for Mitchell Community College and has a total cost of $10 million. 

Iredell County School Bond:  Both Mooresville Graded School District and Iredell-Statesville Schools are experiencing significant overcrowding of existing school buildings, specifically at Mooresville Middle School (MGSD) and Lake Norman and South Iredell High Schools (ISS).  These capacity issues are due to significant growth in the southern part of Iredell County.  In addition, the growth is projected to continue at steady rates.

• Mooresville Middle School has been over capacity since 2014 and has grown by over 150 students since that time.  The district proposes using $35 million in bond funding to build a new middle school off of Rinehardt Road in Mooresville, which will add 900 seats and will alleviate the overcrowding at the current Mooresville Middle School.
• ISS proposes using $80 million in bond funding to build a new high school in the Southern part of the county.  This will alleviate overcrowding from both Lake Norman and South Iredell High Schools.

Iredell County Community College Bond:  Mitchell Community College proposes using $10 million to building a new Public Safety Training Center and driving pad to support the expanding need for emergency services.

That depends.  Ultimately, the Iredell County Commissioners will be the ones to decide how we will pay for these bonds.  Just remember, voters are voting for the bonds only, not a tax increase.  Should the commissioners decide to fund these bonds entirely through property taxes, the tax rate would increase by $0.01 (1 cent per $100 of assessed value).  To put this in perspective, a family with a home valued at $150,000 could see a tax increase of about $15 per year or 29 cents per week.  However, it is important to note that this increase is based on Iredell County’s economics today and doesn’t take into account any economic growth between now and the time the money is needed.  In other words, if no new business and no new taxpayers come into the county over that time period the tax rate would rise by at most, 1 cent.  Any economic growth during that time period will also grow the tax base and could offset potential property tax increases proportionally. 

It is also worth noting that Iredell County’s current tax rate is significantly lower than all the neighboring counties in the region.  If the commissioners do raise taxes by the $0.01 (the full amount needed to pay for the bonds) the new tax rate would be $0.5375, which is still lower than all other counties in the region.  So, even after investing in our community, Iredell County would still enjoy the lowest tax rates in the region, as well as above average per capita income.

There has been a lot of confusion about the North Carolina Education Lottery — the fact is, less than 30% of all lottery revenue goes to support education.  In 2018, the Lottery gave just under $10.5 million to Iredell County, which is split into several buckets:  1)  Pre-Kindergarten for at risk children, 2)  College Scholarships for qualifying students in the NC state or community college system, 3)  Financial Aid—grants to UNC college students who qualify for need-based financial aid, 4)  School Construction Projects, 5)  Non-Instructional Support and 6)  Transportation.  It’s important to note that the General Assembly changed the original legislation which specified lottery funds for school construction to funds for "education-related" expenses. This means funds which had once been available for school construction only, can now be used, at our legislators’ discretion, to supplement items that have been cut or reduced from the State’s regular education expense budget.  Over the last several years, Lottery funds have been redirected from school construction to subsidize the cost of non-instructional support and transportation, standard budget line items.  

In Fiscal Year 2018-2019, Iredell County received a total of $1.8 million in Lottery funds for school construction, of which only $1.4 million was allocated for Iredell-Statesville Schools and $400,000 for MGSD.  If the districts were able to save all the lottery money, and with zero inflation, zero increase in cost of construction and no change in the value of today’s dollars versus tomorrow’s dollars, it would take approximately 88 years to save enough to build a new middle school for MGSD alone, and 57 years to build a new high school for ISS.

Unlike many other states, the state of North Carolina does not allow impact fees to be assessed against builders. Unfortunately, it would seem the NC Homebuilders Association has much more pull than we do: https://www.nchba.org/.../legislativ.../why-not-impact-fees/. This law is outside of Iredell County and the Town of Mooresville's purview, and is certainly beyond MGSD's control. In fact, the North Carolina Supreme Court has weighed in on this issue in a 2016 decision (QUALITY BUILT HOMES V. TOWN OF CARTHAGE). In this case the Town of Carthage, due to extreme growth, passed ordinances allowing impact fees for water and sewer system expansions. The Town cited the Public Enterprise Statutes, N.C.G.S. §§ 160A-311 to -338 as their basis for the ordinance. The builder sued the town and the case made its way to the state Supreme Court who ruled that public enterprise statutes “clearly and unambiguously fail to give [cities] the essential prospective charging power necessary to assess impact fees.”

In North Carolina, the responsibility of building, equipping, and maintaining school facilities is given to our state’s counties; G.S. 115C-408(b) stipulates that public school facility requirements will be met by county governments. More often than not this responsibility is met through School Bonds. While the school district tries to partner with the Town at times, like with facility use agreements for our athletic fields, our performing arts center, etcetera, we are completely separate entities and the Town Government has no fiduciary duty to our school district.

Growth puts our school systems in a predicament. We are not allowed to turn a child in our district away. We have to find a way to house them. What we can do, and continue to do, is work diligently to find the most cost effective way to meet the demands of providing seats for the children in our district. We have attempted to do this by not allowing people from outside of MGSD to choice into our school district. Within our district, we no longer allow choice between our three elementary schools. While our three elementary schools, in addition to our middle school, are all at or over capacity, we made the decision to forego asking our citizens to support both an additional middle school and elementary school. We studied the situation and found that if we can get the additional middle school, we can reconfigure our grades to also free up a bit of space at our elementary schools. We currently have a grade configuration of K - 3 at our three elementary schools, 4 - 6 at our two intermediate schools, 7 - 8 at our one middle schools, and 9 - 12 at our one high school. With two middle schools, we could shift our 6th grade from our two intermediate schools to the middle schools. Then we could shift our third grade to our two intermediate schools. This would make our three elementary schools K-2 schools instead of the current K-3 school configuration. We make all of these decisions with careful deliberation, keeping the interests of our students and community in mind.

This bond includes $35 million for a new middle school in our district, which is needed due to overcrowding.  MGSD is also at capacity at all three elementary schools (including mobile units); however, rather than request funding to also build a fourth elementary school, the district has taken a strategic look at capacity across all Kindergarten through 8^th grade schools.  In order to solve the overcrowding issues at all schools, MGSD will reconfigure grades in the three existing elementary schools and two intermediate schools, as well as the middle schools.  The elementary schools will become K - 2 (currently K - 3), the intermediate schools will become 3 - 5 (currently 4 - 6) and 6^th grade will move to the existing Mooresville Middle School and the new middle school, following the more traditional middle school model of grades 6-8.  The high school will remain unchanged housing grades 9 - 12.

Several years ago, MGSD was proactive and purchased a tract of land off of Rinehardt Road for future needed facilities.

MGSD is fortunate to have an excellent middle school already in existence.  The new middle school would model the current one in programs offered.  Like Mooresville Middle School, the new middle school would also have an athletic field and track, ball diamonds, and full gymnasium.

Quality schools are critical to the health of our community.  There is a direct correlation between the quality of our schools and economic growth and development, crime rate, and overall quality of life.  Good schools attract new businesses and incentivize existing businesses to expand.  Not only do employers use our schools as a “selling point” for recruiting employees, but good schools turn out a qualified labor force to fill jobs locally.  Local employees further help grow the local economy by spending locally (shops, restaurants, entertainment), and the cycle continues. 

In addition, quality schools provide students with direction, as well as a path to the future by focusing on the importance of graduating and pursuing higher education or vocational training.  Students who are encouraged to stay in school, who feel vested in their education, and who work toward graduation are less likely to commit crimes.  In fact, they are four times less likely to become part of the prison population, so good schools lead to lower crime rates and fewer inmates in our jails.  We can invest in good schools now or prisons and inmates later!   

Quality schools aren’t only important to students and their families, they are vital to our economy.  Economic development matters to everyone in our community, regardless of whether or not one has kids in school.  A growing economy grows the commercial tax base, thereby reducing the tax burden of individual property owners.  In order to provide services to residents, the costs of which continue to grow, counties with a shrinking or stagnant commercial tax base must pass along the additional cost to property owners or must reduce the services provided.

All these factors, which are directly tied to the quality of schools in our community, lead to increased property values, and this affects everyone, regardless of whether or not you have children in our schools.  Ask any real estate professional and they will tell you good schools are key to growing your property values!

We want our citizens to be able to make an informed decision when casting their vote on the March 3rd ballot.  We welcome you to attend one of the informational meetings we have scheduled so that any questions may have can be answered!

We will also update this webpage, as well as post on our social media channels:

• Facebook  @MooresvilleGradedSchoolDistrict
• Twitter  @MGSDSchools

In addition, Jennifer Christian, chair of the Iredell County Facilities Task Force, can answer any questions regarding the process of deciding on the facility needs for this bond.  She can be emailed at jenniferschristian@gmail.com.

Our Schools First is a local public school advocacy group that has several resources available:

• Website  www.ourschoolsfirst.com
• Facebook @OurSchoolsFirst
• Twitter  @OurSchoolsFirst
• Instagram  OurSchoolsFirst

Election day is Tuesday March 3^rd 2020, but you can vote early starting on February 13^th!  Remember these important dates and deadlines:

• January 13 — Absentee voting by mail begins
• February 7 — Voter registration deadline (no same day registration)
• February 13 — Early voting begins (select locations)
• February 25 — Last day to request absentee ballot by mail (by 5:00 pm)
• February 29 — Early voting ends
• March 3 — Last day to return absentee ballot by mail (by 5:00 pm)
• March 3 — Election Day (6:30 am – 7:30 pm)

For further information, to check your registration status, find your polling place or request an absentee ballot, check out the NC Board of Elections Website at www.ncsbe.gov/ncsbe/ or Iredell County’s website at https://www.co.iredell.nc.us/1342/2020-Election-Information.