COLUMBIA — South Carolina's poorest school districts will soon learn whether they'll get a chunk of $138 million from the state — and if so, how much — for their construction needs that exceed many times that amount.Â
While the money is the largest single-year sum the state has put toward K-12 construction in decades, it won't go far in replacing or overhauling dilapidated buildings that often date to the 1950s, when the state's inaugural sales tax funded hundreds of Black- and White-only schools in a failed effort to thwart desegregation.
South Carolina hasn't embarked on a major school building project in rural swaths of the state since.Â
With decisions still in motion, state Education Superintendent Molly Spearman is asking legislators for more — lots more — though not a specific amount. The state's largest-ever surplus, coupled with federal COVID aid, provides a once-in-a-generation, or longer, opportunity to provide students in the poorest districts a safe, healthy place to learn, she said. Â
"I can’t think of a better use of one-time money than this," she told a House budget-writing panel. "Please put in as much money as you can because there’s tremendous need."
The $138 million available combines $100 million the Legislature designated in this fiscal year's budget for construction in needy districts with $38 million Spearman added to the pot from her agency's share of federal COVID aid. Announcements on how it will be split could come in late March.
By then, Spearman will have a better idea of what legislators will put toward a second funding round.Â
This photo from April 2018 shows why Dillon District 4's East Elementary School wasn't using classrooms on the upper floor. The school is now 96 years old. File/Brad Nettles/Staff
The House's chief budget writer agrees that now is the time to invest in rural school buildings.Â
"The schools in those poor, rural districts do not have the tax base to fund renovations or new construction," House Ways and Means Chairman Murrell Smith, R-Sumter, told The Post and Courier. "We're going to have to step up as a state."
He expects a "substantial investment" to be part of the 2022-23 state spending package. But how much is up for debate.
Part of the consideration is how far it can go. Construction costs have skyrocketed amid the pandemic, further shrinking what the Legislature's allocation last year can fix.Â
Rating needs Â
Decisions on what to fund will be based on districts' ranking in a new analysis involving their property tax base and residents' per-capita income, as well as a still-underway assessment of building needs in the highest-priority districts. The higher a district's ranking, the more improbable it is for local taxpayers to fund major construction on their own.
Dillon District 4 still uses the 96-year-old East Elementary School and does not have the money to replace the building. File/Brad Nettles/Staff
The ratings, completed by the state's fiscal affairs office, are unsurprising.
The 10 worst off in order are: Allendale County, Bamberg 2 (Denmark-Olar), Dillon 3 (Latta), Bamberg 1 (Bamberg-Ehrhardt), Lee County, Barnwell 19 (Blackville-Hilda), Barnwell 29 (Williston-Elko), Saluda County — where Spearman lives — Dillon 4 and Hampton County.
At the other end of the scale, the five wealthiest districts are Charleston, Greenville and Beaufort counties, Richland 1 in Columbia, and Richland 2 in the capital city's northeast suburbs.
A look at tax rates shows why some districts can build beautiful new schools for students with all the latest technology, while others have been patchworking problems for decades, Spearman said.
A tale of two districts
At the top end of the scale is Charleston County, where all taxable property is assessed at $4.2 billion, which means every dollar charged on taxpayers' bills for school construction brings in $4.2 million. Compare that to rural Barnwell 19 — the state's smallest, with just 520 students — where all property combined is worth less than $11 million. (A single home on Kiawah Island sold for nearly double that in December.)
The Barnwell County district collects just $10,900 per dollar taxed for construction, making the burden of a building project there far more expensive on residents with far less average income.Â
"The bottom line is, these rural areas just absolutely do not have the tax base to ever build a building without putting hundreds of mills on their folks, when they're already paying very high taxes in those areas," Spearman said.
To make the state money stretch as far as possible, school districts will have to "put some skin in the game" to get any, she said.Â
Local matches could come from districts' share of $3 billion in federal COVID aid, which in the 10 poorest ranges from $6.4 million to $46 million. Some can also use money they've socked away incrementally for years to eventually afford a big project.
Even then, the combined effort will build fewer new schools than anticipated just a year ago.
Last spring, contractors estimated an elementary school would cost $25 million to $35 million. Now it's $45 million-plus due to inflation and low availability of materials. For a high school, anticipated costs have leapt from roughly $55 million to $85 million. It could be years before those costs recede, Spearman said.Â
Consolidating schools
A priority for the money could be basic safety projects and renovations. On major construction, in this round and any in the future, school mergers could be a must.
It's the next step in Spearman's quest to encourage consolidations, this time on the school level. Â
Of the 10 worst-off districts, four will become two this summer, as Bamberg County becomes a single district and two of Barnwell County's three districts join to form one that's still less than 1,400 students. Hampton County became a single district last summer.
Those are among the mergers prompted by the Legislature's carrot-and-stick approach in 2019. The state's smallest and poorest districts were offered a share of $50 million to help them merge with a neighbor and warned of a potential mandate, without the incentive cash, if they refused. To get local leaders on board, Spearman assured them no school closures were necessary to get a piece of that pie.
Getting money going forward will be different.
Spearman's push for merging school resources in rural South Carolina has been influenced by what she sees in her home district, Saluda County, where she began her career as a music teacher. Â
"It can’t stay how it’s always been. We’re losing people. We’ve got to consolidate and share services. This is part of that plan," she said about using the construction money as another incentive.Â
She offered an example: "Is it best to renovate three buildings and have three small schools with 200 kids in each, all with declining numbers, or best to build one school with one operation? That's pretty simple financially and for sustainability," she said, while recognizing it can be difficult for a community to see it that way.Â
"Closing schools is a very emotional issue, but my charge is to spend this wisely and not just for now, but to last 30 to 40 years," she continued.Â
Rep. Jackie "Coach" Hayes, D-Dillon, said his community is eager. Â
Officials for Dillon and Latta schools hope to use a combination of federal COVID aid, local reserves and state construction money to build one new elementary school, closing three as much as a century old, said Hayes, who retired last year after three decades as Dillon's football coach.Â
"This will fix the needs in Dillon 3 and 4 for the next 50 years," he said, calling on his colleagues to approve more funding rounds to "solve this rural building problem" across the state.Â
Spearman's already moving around students in the three school districts the state still manages, after taking them over due to a history of pitiful student performance and financial instability. Spearman, who does not seek reelection, hopes to turn the reins back over to local control in all three before her tenure ends in January:Â Â
Allendale-Fairfax High School in Allendale is pictured on Monday, Oct. 22, 2018. Grace Beahm Alford/Staff
• In Allendale County, Fairfax Elementary was closed, and a new wing was built on Allendale Elementary to accommodate pre-K through fifth grade students countywide. The combined school serves fewer than 500. The state contributed $2 million toward the $6 million total cost.Â
• In Williamsburg County, C.E. Murray High's 230 students will transfer this fall to Kingstree High, which houses 500 students in a building designed for three times that number. C.E. Murray will then house third- through fifth-graders from an elementary school that is less than a mile away and overcrowded.Â
• Florence 4, which is in tiny Timmonsville, is set to consolidate this summer with neighboring Florence 1, the county's largest district. Middle and high school students in Timmonsville — less than 300 total — will transfer this fall to the city school of their choice. The plan is to turn Brockington Elementary into a magnet school that will not only provide more opportunities for the children of Timmonsville but also attract students from Florence 1 whose parents want their child in an arts-focused program, Spearman said.
Even though the districts in Williamsburg and Florence counties aren't among the top-10 poorest, they also qualify for a piece of the construction money because they're under state control and merging schools as part of Spearman's turnaround plans.
To cut back on architectural costs and time, the state will use prototype designs to build any new schools. Local school boards will choose from a couple of options.
"We're not building Taj Mahals," Spearman said. "We'll build nice buildings with enough flexibility built into them that they'll last a long, long time."Â Â
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