I recently spoke with County Commissioners Jean Hamilton and Phyllis Portie-Ascott, the co-chairs of the School Bond Education Committee, about the forthcoming school bond on the ballot. The school bond will benefit both Orange County Schools and the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools systems by repairing our aging school facilities.
The School Bond Education Committee is composed of 12 members, including 6 community members (3 from each school district), 4 appointees from the CHCCS and OCS school districts, and the two chairs. Their job is to develop and share information about the bond.
As part of this work, the Bond Education Committee has launched a website about the bond, which I highly recommend you visit. The website contains a comprehensive FAQ, flyers in 5 languages (English, Spanish, Mandarin, Karen, and Burmese), and a PDF presentation with talking points about the bond.
You can also request that a speaker come to your community meeting or neighborhood to discuss the bond or use the Meeting in a Box to host your own education session. Email Kristin Prelipp, the Community Relations Director for Orange County, if you would like to learn more. Speakers have already come to a variety of events throughout the community, which are also listed on the website.
I spoke with Commissioners Hamilton and Portie-Ascott on October 14, 2024. The school bond has been endorsed by the Northern Orange NAACP, Chapel Hill Carrboro NAACP, Hillsborough Chamber, Chapel Hill Carrboro Chamber, Orange Democrats, Triangle Blog Blog, Daily Tar Heel, Chapel Hill Carrboro PTA Council, INDYWeek and the Chapel Hill Carrboro Association of Educators.
Kramer: We’ve written a lot about the school bond over the past year, but I’d love to hear in your own words: why is there a need for this bond?
Commissioner Hamilton: Back in the fall of 2021, I petitioned the commissioners to have a work group of electeds and staff from both of the school districts and the county to look at the facility needs of our public schools. One of the recommendations from that capital needs work group was to hire a consultant to look at the needs across both school districts, and from that work came an estimate that there was over a billion donors of needs within the next 15 years, and recommendations for how to start that process.
The county commissioners voted to put the bond on the ballot.
Commissioner Portie-Ascott: When you look at our schools, we have a number of schools that are really old. There are around 10 that were built between 1952 and 1962, and another five built between 1968 and 1970 and then another ten that were built between 1991 and 2003. So we have a lot of schools that need a lot of repairs and a lot of upgrades in order for us to provide the best educational services to the students that are coming in.
To understand the bond, the commissioners voted to put together a bond education committee that focuses on just getting the facts out to folks so that they can make an informed decision when they vote.
Kramer: Can you talk a little bit about what the bond education committee has been tasked with doing, and what you’ve been doing in your meetings so far? I know you’ve had a few meetings so far.
Commissioner Hamilton: The committee is composed of representatives from the school districts, both residents and staff, and from the county. And the commissioners decided to put together a group of people who have a wide understanding of the community, so that we would know the best ways of communicating to our diverse community.
So at the beginning, we talked about the charge of the bond education committee and about the best ways to communicate about the bond. And there’s a website, postcards, a one-page document that we can easily get to community members, and a FAQ that we can share with the community, so that they can read through the information and make an informed decision. We have been involved in reviewing the design work by the consultants. The consultants brought ideas to the committee – and we discussed what worked, what didn’t work – so that we could refine the material. We also provided ideas about how to distribute the materials that were prepared in several different languages. We wanted to make sure everybody has an opportunity to review.
Kramer: How will the $300 million be spent?
Commissioner Hamilton: The first thing is the bond can only be spent on school facilities, and there’s going to be a split – approximately $175 million to Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools, about $125 million to Orange County Schools. This funding is based on the cost of the major projects and high priority needs that were prioritized in the Wolpert study.
However, it’s also pretty much the proportion that would be allocated if we did it by student enrollment. There have been some projects proposed. And our current understanding is that Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools are looking to replace Carrboro Elementary School, replace Estes Hills Elementary School, and replace Frank Porter Graham Elementary School. And for Orange County Schools, the current understanding is there would be a new elementary school, the replacement of Orange Middle School and an additional major project or major renovation that would cost about $27 million.
And I will add, because I think it’s important, that we know that things may come up and projects may change. The Board of County Commissioners is looking to follow the principles of the Woolpert report, but provide flexibility. The money will be used for major renovations and replacement, but it may look different than the proposed projects.
Kramer: Because it’s always possible an unexpected roof or something needs replacement, right?
Commissioner Portie-Ascott: Yes. I want to echo what Commissioner Hamilton said: Some of the things that we hear about when we’re out and about in the community is that folks are wondering, what will that bond money be used for, or can it be used for some other things outside of school facilities. This money is just for school facilities.
Kramer: Whenever these bonds come up where certain schools are prioritized, there’s sometimes pushback or parents asking for a different approach. We saw that a bit last spring.
Commissioner Portie-Ascott: When we made the decision to hire that consultant, it was a way of taking the politics out of it and strictly looking at where the needs are. That helped us to prioritize. We know that there are some community members who are really great at advocating for those things that they would like, and that is good, but we want to make an objective decision, and we wanted the school boards to have the information also to make an objective decision on what the needs are.
Commissioner Hamilton: We have that Woolpert study which is publicly available, which we need to look at to see the basis of [the districts’] priorities. And we know that the school boards have their own information too. And they can bring that back to us to say why they’re prioritizing something else. But the Woolpert study gives us this basis, and a common language and a common set of facts to make decisions.
Kramer: We have a number of people on the county commissioners, yourself included, who previously served on the school board so you have a good understanding of the entire ecosystem here. So I’m wondering what happens if this bond doesn’t pass, these repairs still need to be done, right?
Commissioner Hamilton: If it doesn’t pass, then the county will have to use its traditional borrowing mechanisms to fund school improvements. Those traditional borrowing mechanisms require collateral. And so that will limit the amount that we can borrow, and so we can only do about a third of what we can do by having a general obligation bond, which is what is on the ballot now. If we did the traditional method, that’s a limited obligation bond, again, with collateral needs, so we couldn’t do as much, so we continue to do the repairs. We would do what we could, but it’ll be limited. It’ll take more time. And I think one thing I don’t know if we highlighted is that Woolpert also looked at the educational adequacy of our schools. The fact that many schools are just not modern, and they don’t have spaces for the 21st century learners, and so you would probably not be able to deal with those issues of educational adequacy..
Commissioner Portie-Ascott: When I’ve toured the schools, I’ve heard some of the principals saying that when we look at the number of students with different needs that we need to address, and the spaces now are not adequate to really serve them.
Kramer: When these schools were built in the early 50s and 60s, that wasn’t a consideration, like it was kind of one size fits all. And we know that one size fits all is not the way for lots of different kinds of people to learn. I’m curious what this means for someone’s tax bill, if this passes.
Commissioner Hamilton: The bond is projected to cost property taxpayers $34.10 of assessed value. So for example, if your home is valued at $400,000 your taxes would increase by about $136.40 a year.
Kramer: Where can people go to learn more?
Commissioner Portie-Ascott: https://orangecountyschoolbond.com/
Kramer: Is there anything else you’d like people to know?
Commissioner Portie-Ascott: We want folks to know that we have materials available for you. So if you have an event where you would like to share information with your neighbors, then you go to https://orangecountyschoolbond.com/ to request some materials and staff would be happy to get those materials out to you.
Commissioner Hamilton: On that homepage, there’s some basic information and a FAQ that goes into depth on questions, and I will add, if there’s a question that no one has asked and is not posted, that they should reach out to Kristin Prelipp and ask it, and we’ll look to get them an answer and put it on the website.
Kramer: I’m looking right now and I think you’ve captured every question that I’ve seen circulating so far. I want to thank you both for taking the time to do this – I know you have a lot going on, and we’re very appreciate of your work on the Bond Education Committee.