Savannah-Chatham public school officials aren’t exactly sure which building projects will be cut now that their education sales tax revenue has run dry, but they are certain there won’t be any more wasteful spending to please the public.
In May, district officials began to assess how many school improvement and construction projects were incomplete because revenue collections from the first education sales tax, ESPLOST I, had ended.
They wanted to know exactly where they stood financially before they started spending revenue on school improvement projects in the second round of education special purpose local option sales tax revenue collections, called ESPLOST II. That’s when they discovered that ESPLOST I revenue had been overspent by $15 million.
A portion of that overspending was the result of people-pleasing changes and additions to the original ESPLOST construction plan. Recently, as district administrators were in the midst of figuring out what school improvement projects would have to be modified, cut or not done at all, another one of those changes cropped up.
This one was related to the fence at Savannah Arts Academy.
Among the ESPLOST I projects completed early on was security fencing at every school. In 2009 Savannah Arts Academy, a stately brick building in Ardsley Park, had a $26,289 galvanized chain link fence installed around the back of the school. But the neighbors didn’t like the looks of it and asked that the district replace it with something more aesthetically pleasing and compatible with the character of the homes around it.
At the time, the district was trying to get voters to extend the education sales tax so they could collect revenue for school construction and improvements for another five years. So the Ardsley Park neighbors were told that the new $26,289 fence could be replaced with a more attractive one, if voters approved ESPLOST II.
The sales tax extension passed with overwhelming public support, and in May the school board approved a $102,630 bid for a better looking replacement fence.
They were scheduled to vote on the use of ESPLOST II revenue to pay for the replacement fence during a special called meeting last month. That would have raised the total amount of ESPLOST revenue for Savannah Arts fencing to $128,919.
But Superintendent Thomas Lockamy pulled it off the agenda. For now, the folks in Ardsley Park will have to cope with the $26,289 fence.
“It doesn’t mean that I’m not going to reconsider it at some time in the future, but I don’t want to make a recommendation until I get our priorities in order,” said Lockamy. “It’s a lesson learned. This time I’m getting the big projects done first and holding off on the little stuff until later.”
Here are the other recent ESPLOST decisions:
• Oglethorpe Charter School: $769,320 in ESPLOST I funding for Oglethorpe classroom, office equipment and furniture was shifted into a fund for expendable non-computer equipment.
• Largo-Tibet Elementary School: $70,000 in ESPLOST I funding for Largo-Tibet Elementary classroom, office equipment and furniture was shifted into a fund for expendable non-computer equipment.
• New Hampstead High School: $600,000 in ESPLOST I funding for New Hampstead High School classroom, office equipment and furniture was shifted to a fund for expendable non-computer equipment. And $185,000 was moved from the district’s rainy day coffers, or fund balance, to cover the cost of portable classrooms for opening day at the newly constructed New Hampstead High.
• Godley Station K-8: $220,000 was moved from the district’s rainy day coffers, or fund balance, to cover the cost of portable classrooms for two-year-old Godley Station K-8 School.
• Contract award: Mobile Modular was awarded a $97,779 contract for a 24-month lease of an additional three classroom units at Godley Station School as well as an $182,955 contract for the 12-month lease of five portable classroom units and a restroom at New Hampstead High. The total amount of the contract award for Mobile Modular was $280,734.
The opening of a new ESPLOST II-funded Port Wentworth School and the construction of the ESPLOST II funded classroom wing at New Hampstead High is expected to eliminate the need for those portables in the future.
District officials said they could have drawn attendance zone lines differently to avoid the need for portables for New Hampstead, but if they had done so, they would have to redraw the lines when the ESPLOST II-funded wing is constructed, causing a second disruptive shifting of students from three high schools.
• Change order: Change order No. 8 for the Butler Elementary School construction project was approved. The $250,344 change order reconciles unused costs for the Butler Elementary School contract, including $33,310 in unused contingency funds and $217,034 of unused guaranteed maximum price funding.