When the Guilford County Board of Commissioners meets on Thursday, Oct. 2, the commissioners will be asked to sign off on some reshuffling of a whole lot of school bond money – a move the Board of Education has already approved.

The request comes in regard to the massive $2 billion in voter-approved school bonds that are currently funding new schools, additions and needed repairs across the county’s school system.

Of that total, about $500 million has been earmarked to take care of long-deferred renovations at nearly every school in Guilford County.

That $2 billion total came in two stages. In 2020, voters approved a $300 million bond, and in 2022, they approved another $1.7 billion – one of the largest local school bond packages in North Carolina history.  With interest, the payback by taxpayers will come to over $3 billion.

The plan covers new school construction, major additions, roofing, HVAC replacements, safety improvements – and other work that both county leaders and education officials have described as long overdue.

School leaders say that four projects – Brooks Global Studies, Claxton Elementary, Cone Elementary and Florence Elementary – are either finished or no longer need their full budget. In early September, the Board of Education voted to reallocate the remaining dollars from those projects, a total of $3,585,974, to other schools where costs have run higher than expected or where additional needs have been identified.

The commissioners normally go along with the schools’ funding shifts, but they sometimes ask questions about timing, priorities or why certain projects went over budget. There have been rare times in the past when the commissioners haven’t allowed the school board to move funds.

Here’s how the decreases break down:

Brooks Global Studies – budget reduced by $1.53 million, from $42.6 million down to $41.1 million.

Claxton Elementary – reduced by just under $1 million, bringing its total to $50.3 million.

Cone Elementary – cut by $901,000, leaving $5.2 million.

Florence Elementary – reduced by $171,000, leaving about $280,000.

If the commissioners agree, those dollars will now go to:

Dudley High School – up $60,000, for a total of $1.2 million.

District-wide projects – up $1.27 million, total $10.1 million.

Fairview Elementary – up $48,000, total $591,000.

Kernodle Middle – up $125,000, total $340,000.

Oak Hill Elementary – up $200,000, total $343,000.

Southern High School – up $749,000, total $1.9 million.

Southwest Elementary – up $175,000, total $369,000.

Southwest High School – up $756,000, total $4.5 million.

Western High School – up $200,000, total $2.0 million.

Altogether, the shift doesn’t change the overall budget of $699.5 million for these adopted projects – it just redistributes the money.

The giant school construction and repair program is a multi-year undertaking. Some projects are well underway or completed, while others will take years to finish. County officials estimate that work tied to the bond referendums will continue into the early 2030s, which means school leaders and commissioners will likely be reviewing and adjusting budgets many times over the coming decade as costs shift and needs evolve.

Guilford County Schools Superintendent Whitney Oakley is the sponsor of the October 2 agenda item, and school officials will be there to answer questions from the commissioners.

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