After a public hearing Tuesday night that saw no pushback, the Starkville-Oktibbeha Consolidated School District Board of Trustees is ready to move forward next week with a proposed $16 million bond issue for the planned sixth and seventh grade school on the Mississippi State University campus.
During Tuesday’s public hearing, nobody spoke against issuing the bonds, which are not expected to cause a tax increase over current school district millage rates. Instead, the hearing turned into an opportunity for SOCSD officials to praise the effort it took for Oktibbeha County to get through state-mandated consolidation of the Starkville and Oktibbeha County school districts and partner with MSU to build a new school.
“I think it is hands-down going to be one of the best things for education, not only in Starkville, but also in this state,” board member Lee Brand said.
The bond issue could be approved during a special called board meeting on Friday, May 27. No widespread petition drives to bring the reverse referendum bond issue to a countywide vote have materialized since the bond issue was first announced.
The local reverse-referendum bond issue is the final of three major pieces needed to fund construction of the $30 million school. Last month, the Mississippi Legislature approved $10 million in funding over two years for the school. MSU has pledged $10 million to the school, including $5 million in land. The bond issue would cover the remaining $10 million and any additional costs associated with construction of the school.
The debt is expected to be serviced with a 2.9-mill levy that would replace the 2.9 mills schedule to come off the school district’s debt obligations this year. SOCSD Superintendent Lewis Holloway said Tuesday the school has an “optimistic” construction completion date of July 2018, with students beginning classes there in the fall of 2018. He also addressed why the resolution of intent approved unanimously by the school board last week called for $16 million in bonds instead of $10 million.
“$16 million is our maximum bonding authority,” Holloway said. “This district has lots of projects out there. We will initially bond only $10 million, but we don’t know the actual final cost of the school. It may cost more than $10 million, it may cost less than $10 million. Until we know that, we’re not going to schedule any projects until we get this one chartered and going down the road.”
Three non-SOCSD personnel made formal and informal comments during the hearing. Jeremiah Dumas, who has advocated for construction of the school through Starkville Parents for Public Schools, was the lone citizen to sign up to speak regarding the bond issue.
Dumas thanked Mississippi House District 43 Rep. Rob Roberson, R-Starkville, who was in attendance Tuesday night, for his work in securing state funding for the school. He said as a university employee, he was excited about have the school located on campus.
“Words can’t express how thankful we are for (Rob’s) leadership and the other leadership that’s there in terms of bringing a third of the funding needed for this home from Jackson,” Dumas said.
Also speaking in favor of the school was Devon Brenner, who just started in her new role as special assistant to the vice president for education initiatives in MSU’s Office of Research and Economic Development.
“I have been moved out of the College of Education and into the VP’s office partly as a symbol of the importance of the partnership school relationship to the entire university,” Brenner said. “The relationship between the university and the school district is very important to the university as a whole.”
Holloway said he hopes the new school will continue to promote beneficial partnerships between the school district and the university, such as the YES! program, led by MSU College of Forrest Resources Associate Extension Professor Jessica Tegt, that supplements science education in the district’s schools.
The school will serve as a demonstration site for student teachers and as a research center for rural teaching and teacher education. Because it houses sixth and seventh grade students, it will allow student teachers to gain classroom hours in elementary (K-6) and secondary (7-12) education.
“When I think about partnerships, I think about the YES! Program and Jessica Tegt and how great that is and kids just absolutely love it and science scores are going up because of it,” Holloway said. “That’s the kind of thing we want to see. With 100 interns working in one school and college professors housed in that school with open communication, I just think the sky is the limit of what this school can accomplish.”
School board member Keith Coble said spending two years going to school on a university campus during formative years for students will also help broaden their horizons.
“Yes, we have children in our school district that have never been on that campus,” Coble said. “This means that every child in our school district is going to spend two years of their school career at Mississippi State. It’s going to be comfortable to them. The long term result is there are going to be kids who aspire to things that they would have never aspired to if it were not for this, even though they might have been going to a school three miles away.”
Adding to support for the school, the Greater Starkville Development Partnership issued a statement of support for local funding of the partnership school on Tuesday.