Here's the SPLOST debate that won't happen

Superintendent David Lewis and Muscogee County School Board member Rob Varner say state law prohibits them from debating board member Frank Myers, who challenged them to a public exchange of opinions about the proposed sales tax to fund capital projects.

But the two sides have engaged in a virtual debate the past two days, since Myers and fellow board newcomer John Thomas staged a news conference Thursday to campaign against the March 17 referendum that will ask voters to renew the 1 percent Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax that expired Dec. 31. Early voting starts Feb. 23.

With the Ledger-Enquirer acting as the virtual moderator, asking the two sides to respond to each other’s assertions, there were plenty of topics left unreported because of time and space. So here’s the sequel:

Autism project

One of the 24 proposed projects on the $192,185,000 list is $3.5 million to retrofit one wing of classrooms in an undisclosed elementary, middle and high school to better serve autistic students.

Thomas wants the school district to “eliminate wasteful no-bid contracts and conduct a forensic or efficiency audit that would free up money to address these issues.”

“Already, district-wide,” he said, “we have 120 empty classrooms. We don’t need more classrooms. If the implication is that if the SPLOST does not pass, money from the general fund will not be freed up to address the issues of autistic children, that is just unfair and misleading.”

Valerie Fuller, the school district’s communications director, emailed the administration’s response:

“As explained in detail at the public forums, the proposed autism program is designed to be implemented in current vacant classrooms that are retrofitted to meet the needs of the student, as deemed appropriate by their Individual Education Plan (IEP) teams. Currently, the district only has approximately $7 Million accrued in state entitlement capital outlay funds to provide for all of the capital/maintenance needs of the district, which is estimated at $175 Million. Renovation and rebuilding based on site work, building shell, interior demolition and rebuild, plumbing, HVAC, electrical, security and architectural/engineering fees. Dedicated space at an elementary, a middle, and a high school would include classrooms, staff and parent training rooms, life skills rooms, therapy rooms, observation windows, and appropriate restroom access.”

Salary raises

Thomas balked at the contention that passing the SPLOST — which can be used only on capital expenses, not operating or personnel costs — will free up money in the school district for salary raises.

“We’ve had a SPLOST in place for a number of years now,” he said. “I want you to ask bus drivers who haven’t had a raise in eight years, physical plant employees who haven’t had a raise in 11 years, how having the SPLOST in place has affected them.”

The administration’s response:

“The Muscogee County School District has suffered austerity cuts of nearly $178 Million since 2003. In addition, for four of the last five years our district has been reduced in excess of approximately $23.5 Million in equalization funds. Without the SPLOST, which generated the funding to cover many of the capital project needs over the last five years, the budgetary outlook would have been much more dire. Approximately 85 percent of the district’s budget is comprised of personnel costs with the remaining approximately 15 percent used for all other expenses such as utilities, maintenance, instructional materials, supplies, etc. Without a SPLOST, there are only two options: generate revenue from another source or decrease expenditures.”

Spencer High

At $56 million, a replacement for Spencer High School is the most expensive project on the proposed SPLOST list. During the Jan. 29 forum, Nathan Smith, who administers the Facebook page linked to the anti-SPLOST website NoSchoolBoardtax.com, asked Lewis where the new Spencer will be located and, if the land isn’t already acquired, how the project’s cost could be estimated. Lewis said the district already owns the targeted property but it would be “premature” to disclose its location.

Thomas asked during Thursday’s news conference, “Why not tell us where it is? What’s the holdup? Superintendent Lewis will not reveal the location of the (new) high school. So they want you to give them the money and then they’ll tell you where the school’s going to be. I don’t believe that’s the right way to proceed at all.”

The administration’s response:

“There has been no purchase of property for the proposed new Spencer High School. The Muscogee County School District has taken steps to acquire property by means of a land swap with the Columbus Consolidated Government. The property obtained by the swap could be part of a possible future location in conjunction with property already owned by the district on the closed sites of Muscogee and Cusseta Road Elementary facilities for the proposed new high school. The actual future location of the high school will ultimately be determined by the Board once there is a disposition on the SPLOST vote.”

Myers, in an email Friday, insisted Lewis’ answer at the forum and the Fuller’s emailed statement seem to contradict each other. Myers asked, “Why won’t Lewis just say specifically what he intends to ask the board to do so the public will know?”

Fuller responded in a follow-up email Friday:

“No money has been exchanged. There has been no purchase of property. We own two pieces of property (Muscogee and Cusseta Road locations) and the land swap would complete the necessary acreage required to build a high school depending on the SPLOST disposition. Then, the Board must approve the site.”

Columbus Mayor Teresa Tomlinson said the land swap is basically a done deal.

“I believe it’s been signed,” Tomlinson said Friday. “It certainly has been approved. And we’re very excited about moving forward with that. I think this is going to give us a great opportunity to transform that area, and also to honor the history of Spencer High School and the legacy that it has left.

“I think it’s going to be a transformational project, the center of something much bigger and much broader to really lift up the neighborhoods that are there. And I think that the beginning of that tide will be a new Spencer High School.”

According to the memorandum of understanding, the school district would receive 33 acres along Fort Benning Road in exchange for 21.44 acres at the former Marshall Middle School, 11 acres at Brewer Elementary School and 5 acres at the former Tillinghurst Elementary School. It also states that if the total value of the properties exchanged isn’t equal, the agency that receives the lesser value shall pay the difference in cash at the closing.

After the November work session in which the land swap proposal was presented to the school board, Myles Caggins, the school district’s now-retired operations chief, shared more details of the land swap:

The Tillinghurst property would be part of the proposed redesign of the southeast Columbus intersection known as the Spider Web, where an underpass would be built under the railroad tracks. Columbus Council unanimously voted Aug. 26 to build a tunnel rather than a bridge. The project, estimated to cost the city $46.5 million and funded by the Transportation Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax, would alleviate traffic delays at the railroad crossing.

The excess land at Brewer would be used to build a road connecting Martin Luther King Boulevard with Buena Vista Road.

The Marshall property would be used for unspecified future redevelopment. In the building that houses the auditorium, the school district would keep two rooms for storage, one for standardized test materials and the other for Title I materials.

The 33 acres the city would give the school district along Fort Benning Road is undeveloped land south of Cusseta Road and north of Baker Plaza Road. A new Spencer High would be built there, Caggins said. The land would be contiguous with the 28 acres at the former Cusseta Road Elementary and the 9 acres at the former Muscogee Elementary. An athletics complex with tennis courts and fields for other sports could be built on those two parcels for district-wide use. “That would give us 70 acres, which is about what we currently have at Spencer,” Caggins said. The Spencer property off Victory Drive would be sold, he said.

Staff writer Mike Owen contributed to this report.

This story was originally published February 6, 2015 at 4:53 PM with the headline "Here's the SPLOST debate that won't happen."