Schools post sales tax information; Williams: ‘there’s other alternatives’

By MIKE WILLIAMS

Patriot Publishing

Pulaski County Public School’s website (pcva.us) now includes a page full of information on the upcoming referendum on a 1 percent sales tax for school construction and improvements.

Tuesday night the school board, at a special called meeting, voted unanimously to include the information on its website.

The information, found at the top of the school system’s site under a tab entitled “1% Sales Tax Option Referendum,” includes a memo written by School Superintendent Rob Graham advocating for and explaining what the 1 percent sales tax option would mean to the school system.

Included also is a list of frequently asked questions about the referendum and the tax, a list of capital needs of the school system and a graphic giving the ages and other important details on the county’s school facilities.

The page also allows viewers to submit questions about the referendum, which school officials say they will post answers.

At Tuesday’s meeting, Graham outlined the school system’s current capital improvement funding plan, which involves a combination of retired school debt service and any carry over money the school system has left over at the end of a fiscal year.

Graham said the school system receives about $1.2 million annually from retired debt service, “and then we usually carry forward about $300,000 to $400,000 to our capital fund.”

“So we’re looking at somewhere between $1.5 million right now that we have for capital improvement funding items, and that’s anything from roofs to athletic facilities to classrooms. We can use this sometimes for buses and things of that nature.”

Graham explained that, with the 1 percent sales tax option, the school system would receive an estimated $5 million a year for 20 years.

He noted the list of capital projects found on the website is almost everything that is absolutely needed at every school.

Graham told the school board just that day he had added an additional item.

“I added an electronic sign at Riverlawn that hadn’t worked in five years, I think, and and we have to put a new panel in that. And the cost of that is somewhere between $10,000 and $20,000, so that added a little bit,” he said.

“But the total for all those projects is about $87.5 million. We did not include our middle school track that has not been completely completed. It still needs locker rooms, water, electricity, and things of that nature. But we left that out because that’s more of a want than a need,” Graham stated.

“So, we have the opportunity to really take on these potential facility projects that we have if the voters decide to move forward with approving the referendum. It is a long-term investment in our school division, and something that we feel would be really a game changer for Pulaski County Schools.

“You know, we have a lot of good, really good things going with academics, with athletics, with enrollment. This could really help enrollment too. Obviously, it could mean a great deal for our students, for our children, and for our faculty and staff to have modernization. And we have a very, very safe school division, but to even make it safer and more modern and more innovative is something that this funding could really help us with, and we’re not alone. There are 42 to 47 divisions that will have this on their ballot on November 3rd too. Many of our surrounding divisions, including Radford City, Giles and Wythe, all of them have this on their referendum too,” Graham said.

Billy Williams, the board’s Draper representative, addressed what he called “alternatives” to the 1 percent sales tax.

He said the original memorandum of understanding between the School Board and the Board of Supervisors “is good until 2038-39.”

“Coming into this, I didn’t know the difference between capital and operations, so it’s been a learning thing that between federal, state and local taxes, that’s what takes care of operating the schools. When it comes to capital, the physical buildings, and any other kind of improvements like that, building a school, that’s all separate.

“In July 2024, we (school board) sat down with the board of supervisors and we come up with this agreement to take retired debt … and instead of taking into the county’s coffers, it’s now being diverted to the school system to use for capital improvements. We negotiated that, and at the time, the debt included Snowville, Critzer, the high school, Pulaski Elementary, Riverlawn, Dublin Elementary and Pulaski County Middle School,” he explained.

Williams continued that retired debt at the end of this school year will be about $970,000 added to any carryover funds the schools will see at the end of the fiscal year.

Williams said the retired debt figure grows in 2027-28 to about $1.4 million. In 2028-29 the retired debt rises to $1.745 million. In 2031, the figure jumps to $2.25 million.

“But the big money comes in when the middle school comes off. Okay, the current debt right now for the school system, for the middle school alone, is like $3.1 million.

Williams agreed all the information should be available for voters.

” For those who want a 1% sales tax, you have all that information. But this is something to let you know that there’s other alternatives out there that we’ve currently used and done some really great things with that you need to be aware of too.”