Two billion dollars in school bond money – over three billion when you factor in interest – is certainly not going as far as voters hoped it would when they approved massive school bond referendums in 2020 and 2022. A lot of projects voters hoped to see with that money aren’t getting done and the commissioners are already talking about putting a new school bond referendum on the ballot in the not too distant future.
That one is expected to come in at around $550 million and school advocates say even that won’t be enough for the schools to get done what needs to be done.
Still, that $2 billion in bond money is getting spent and the Guilford County Board of Commissioners is expected to approve a $6.68 million land purchase at the board’s Thursday, Dec. 18 meeting, clearing the way for construction of a replacement Northwest Guilford Middle School in the Stokesdale area.
The agenda item asks the commissioners to authorize the Guilford County Board of Education to spend $6,684,632 in order to acquire 130 acres along North Carolina Highway 68, spread across five adjoining parcels.
State law requires Board of Commissioners’ approval of both the purchase and the amount spent before school officials can execute the contracts.
The Board of Education voted on November 18 to move forward with the acquisition and formally requested county approval shortly thereafter.
In a letter to Chairman of the Guilford County Board of Commissioners Skip Alston, Board of Education Chair Deena Hayes said the land would be used for construction of the replacement Northwest Guilford Middle School and noted that the purchase is contingent on commission approval, as required by North Carolina General Statutes.
According to county documents, the five tracts total just under 130 acres and are located along Highway 68 in Stokesdale. Individual parcels range in size from roughly 21 acres to nearly 30. One tract includes a provision allowing the seller to retain approximately 2.5 acres as a homestead – with boundary surveys attached to the purchase agreements showing the carve-out.
The total purchase price of $6.68 million will be funded using local school bond proceeds that are already authorized and appropriated as part of the county’s long-standing land acquisition project ordinance. No new funding is being requested.
If approved, the action will shift $6.68 million out of the existing Guilford County Schools Land Acquisition project and into the Northwest Middle School Replacement project. The land acquisition project balance would be reduced accordingly, while the replacement middle school project would see a corresponding increase in both expenditures and bond revenue.
County budget documents show the Northwest Middle School Replacement project was originally adopted in January 2023 at $7.5 million and later amended. With the proposed December 18 amendment, the project total would rise to $14,190,336, reflecting the addition of the land purchase cost funded by general obligation bonds.
School officials have said the acquisition of the Highway 68 site is a necessary step toward replacing the existing Northwest Guilford Middle School facility, though construction timelines and design details are expected to be addressed at some point in the future.
If approved by the commissioners, the Board of Education would then exercise its option to purchase the property and proceed with the next phases of the replacement school project.
Get a boat load of auditors ready to review as prices will certainly increase.
100% increase from the original estimate, yet here is the article from the media last March.
https://www.wfmynews2.com/mobile/article/news/local/guilford-county-school-district-could-loose-3-thousand-students-by-the-year-2035/83-36f8dba7-b4f3-44d1-a6d4-8bff14386901
This is why I voted against the bonds and will continue to do so. It is NEVER enough, they don’t use the money wisely, often the money is not spent how they say, and the buildings are poorly maintained. I remember bonds from long ago supposedly to be used for improving classrooms but instead a parking lot for administrators was built. Also Maurice Green decided to expand the number of administrators increasing assistant superindents to a ridiculous number; supposedly that was for students wellbeing.
If the school board is replacing a school, I would assume they are demolishing the old school. Instead of buying a new prop6, why not build the new school on the same land as the old?
We have lost over 10% of the students in public school here in Guildford county over the last 5 years. This number will only go higher over the next 10 to 20 years as people are having fewer and fewer children and parents are choosing charter schools and private schools over public schools. We don’t need any more public schools built.
130 acres for a school?? That’s a big school. Do new schools make better students? Why aren’t the existing schools maintained properly?
Those are rhetorical questions.
It will never be enough for the local school board. Aren’t enrollment numbers trending downward in Guilford? Sounds like time for a taxpayer rebate on a portion of that 3 billion.