An infographic shows people holding up signs about the E-SPLOST 6 vote on Nov. 2. E-SPLOST 6 designates funds from the Education Special Purpose Local Options Sales Tax–one cent on every dollar spent in the county–toward improving schools in the Clarke County School District. Graphic by Eva Orbock
With a voting date of Nov. 2, E-SPLOST 6 will be designated toward improving the educational spaces of the CCSD, including rebuilding Clarke Middle School.
Print Managing Editor Chloe Sears: How would you explain E-SPLOST 6 to students and families who might not understand it?
Community Oversight Committee volunteer member Andrew Malec: Education Special Purpose Local Options Sales Tax 6 (E-SPLOST 6) is a one cent tax on every dollar that’s spent in the county. It’s different from Transportation Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (T-SPLOST) in that it goes into a completely separate pool, and is devoted exclusively to infrastructure for the school system.
It goes into all the buildings and renovations, and can be used towards technology and buses, and things associated with the school district. It cannot be used for paying salaries or incidental costs. It’s all actual infrastructure and physical things.
CS: Why do you think this is a good investment of people’s tax dollars?
AM: (The COC tries to give) the general public a sense of security in knowing that their taxpayer money–those cents on every dollar that is spent–is being spent wisely.
The facilities in our (county’s) public school system have got to rival those of pretty much any other county in the state. The more updated all these schools become makes our county that much more attractive for people that are considering coming, as well as attracting teacher talent. I think it’s super important and valuable to have access to that money and the upgrades that come with it to the school facilities.
CS: I read on the CCSD website that if approved, E-SPLOST 6 will go towards a new Clarke Middle School. So can you tell me how this is going to improve the school beyond physical renovations?
AM: Clarke Middle is on that list (for improvement), and it came up that $10 million was allocated for renovation. Every time they move closer to actually planning for that renovation or to build, they do an assessment and analyze what specifically we’re getting into, what’s needed, how much it’s going to cost, who’s going to do the work, etc. In that analysis (for CMS), it was determined that that school is very outdated, the width of the hallways is narrow, the ceilings are short (and) the HVAC system is completely outdated.
If the cost to renovate it approaches 80% of rebuilding, then they open up the floor for discussion whether or not it’s prudent to rebuild. After speaking with all the community members and the Local School Governance Team (LSGT) there, ultimately it was determined that yes, people want to rebuild, which ultimately meant that that project needed to get pushed (from E-SPLOST 5) to E-SPLOST 6 because they’re going to need more than the $10 million to rebuild. I think (Hilsman Middle School) cost $24 million and CMS may be in that same neighborhood. (It) is yet to be determined until the design is finalized. That process is in the works. John Gilbreath, who’s the (Director of SPLOST), has been meeting with his team and the LSGT and principal at Clarke Middle, and (has been) working with them to understand what (CMS’s) needs are, and how to kind of make their use of space better.
CS: This is going to be affecting a lot of schools like Hilsman. We talked about CMS, as well, but I didn’t see anything on the CCSD website about how this will be affecting CCHS. So if the sales tax is approved, do you know how it will affect Clarke Central?
AM: Clarke Central probably won’t get a ton out of this new section because in E-SPLOST 5, there was a pretty decent chunk that went towards the track and the concession stand. E-SPLOST 6 district-wide or technology improvements for all schools included updated technology for instruction, support for digital learning, modernized safety and security equipment, new school buses to replace older, less efficient vehicles, digital and structured materials, software and textbooks, ongoing maintenance on schools and athletic facilities– which they’re always having to replace– the roofing or carpet or HVAC. They’re upgrading equipment and kitchens for nutrition, and upgrading kids custodial equipment.
The major projects and renovations will be a new CMS (and) major renovations at Cedar Shoals High School. Alps Road Elementary and Cleveland Road Elementary have major renovations that are on the list, as well as quite a few smaller school project requests, like if a school needs new playground equipment.
CS: What makes E-SPLOST 6 different from past sales taxes?
AM: When everybody went home for (virtual learning during quarantine), all of the new student Personal Learning devices (and teacher laptops), the iPads, and all the Chromebooks (were) supplied out of the funds from E-SPLOST 5, and the new classroom technology projectors, computers (and) 3-D printers, as well as the networks were upgraded or built to allow people to access wireless (internet) and be able to work remote. We had a new logo for elementary, a new HMS, big renovations at Burney-Harris-Lyons Middle School and Coile Middle School, and also the new board office on Prince Ave. All of those projects were funded (by) E-SPLOST 5.
CS: What happens to the Clark County School District if E-SPLOST 6 is not approved? How long would it take for a new sales tax to go through that process?
AM: I don’t know what happens if E-SPLOST 6 isn’t approved. That (money) would have to come through tax dollars in another way and realistically, I’ve doubted it would ever get $120 million (over the next five years). I think that (even) if we were to find another way to tax our local community members to kind of generate the money necessary, it would be very difficult to come up with a method that basically generates over half of that tax from out of the county, like the E-SPLOST tax does.
