Republican County Commissioners are doing everything in their power to slow down, change and stall the School Bond Initiative voted in by Transylvania County residents in 2018. Below is a timeline of the initiative and the Republican efforts to cancel it.

September 2015: Master School Facility Study: Copy on TCS website https://www.tcsnc.org/district_info/strategic_planning/facilities_master_planning

Analyzes facility needs at all 9 schools, the Ed. Center, and the bus garage.  This is the document the school board worked from in making decisions.

2016-2018: The school board worked with the commissioners on how to fund the projects.  The commissioners refused to consider any funding option other than a referendum for a general obligation bond.  Then the school board did a lot of work to decide how much to ask for, what needs we should include – that sort of thing.  There were $98 million worth of needs; we did not think a bond for $98 million would pass. We chose Rosman High and Brevard High because every student in Transylvania County goes to high school with us (Brevard Academy and Mountain Sun are K-8.) and they were the schools with the most pressing needs.  (Rosman Middle came along for the ride because it’s on the same campus as Rosman High.)  Clark Nexsen, the architectural firm, did the pre-planning and concept drawings for us.  The school board and a community committee worked to educate the public on the need to pass the school bond.

Fall 2018: Everything about the school bond is here: https://sites.google.com/tcsnc.org/school-bond-2018-tcs/home

In September and October 2018, special school board meetings were held to present the Concept Schemes to the board and to the public.  There was a meeting at each high school.

November 6, 2018: Transylvania County General Obligation School Bond referendum is on the ballot.  The bond passed with 59.7% of the votes: 9,313 yes, 6,297 no.  Larry Chapman actively campaigned against the bond; the other commissioners (Jason Chappell, Page Lemel, Mike Hawkins, Kelvin Phillips) stayed neutral.

January 16, 2019: Joint meeting of the school board and the county commissioners.  Jason Chappell and David Guice were present.  Jake Dalton, Teresa McCall, and Larry Chapman were not commissioners at that time.  The meeting was facilitated by Kara Millonzi, an attorney with the School of Government at UNC-Chapel Hill who specializes in school finance law.  Here is the folder with the minutes from that meeting: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1ZQlVcbPbLuF6QrQUQYBClPfoOc1Dq9K2

The newspaper report of that meeting.  Here is the link: https://www.transylvaniatimes.com/news/boards-discuss-school-funding/article_05ee60b6-cba4-5668-a1c4-756dab3fcb24.html

Basically, Kara Millonzi stated that “the construction of all new school builds and renovation are under the control of the school board.  However, if there is a multi-year contract, as is often the case, the approval of the county commissioners is required because they have to pay for the contract.”

As a result of this meeting, there is an interlocal agreement between the two boards, and there is also a Memorandum of Understanding regarding bond issuance and construction.  I don’t have copies of either of these two documents.

Here is the statute that governs multi-year contracts:

The NC General Statutes (101.G.S. 115C-441(c1) state that: 

  (c1) Continuing Contracts for Capital Outlay. – A local school administrative unit may enter into a contract for capital outlay expenditures, some portion or all of which is to be G.S. 115C-441 Page 2 performed or paid in ensuing fiscal years, without the budget resolution including an appropriation for the entire obligation, provided all of the following apply: a. The budget resolution includes an appropriation authorizing the current fiscal year's portion of the obligation. b. An unencumbered balance remains in the appropriation sufficient to pay in the current fiscal year the sums obligated by the transaction for the current fiscal year. c. Contracts for capital outlay expenditures are approved by a resolution adopted by the board of county commissioners, which resolution when adopted shall bind the board of county commissioners to appropriate sufficient funds in ensuing fiscal years to meet the amounts to be paid under the contract in those years.   

January 2019 – January 2020: The School Bond Construction Committee (which includes school administration, two school board members, two county commissioners, and representatives from Brevard High, Rosman High, and Rosman Middle) met to hear presentations from architectural firms and construction companies.  They made recommendations to the school board; the board heard presentations from the finalists.  Clark Nexsen and Vannoy Construction were selected.  Contract negotiations were finalized and sent to the commissioners for approval on September 3, 2019.  The commissioners sent the contracts for their lawyer to review and did not sign the contracts to pay the architect and construction manager until January 13, 2020 – delaying the bond projects for more than four months.  (I’m not totally sure what else was going on during this year – can’t remember.  I know that Clark Nexsen was doing some advance planning work.)

January 13, 2020: The county commissioners finally signed the contracts for the architect and the construction manager.   

2020: FAQ page on TCS website: “The advance planning work done by Clark Nexsen was then used as a basis for schematic design drawings, which took input from staff to develop a first draft with options. Once options were selected by the Board of Education, design development drawings were completed, which finalized general floor plans and direction.  Construction documents are now [September 2020] being completed for review by the state Department of Insurance and the Department of Public Instruction.  Once these reviews are completed, a Guaranteed Maximum Price (GMP) will be established and a notice to proceed will be issued.  Because of extreme market volatility due to the pandemic, the Board has been forced to modify the scope of the projects to bring costs in line with budgets.  We are currently evaluating options, and changes will push project start until at least summer 2022.  https://www.tcsnc.org/cms/One.aspx?portalId=12180038&pageId=15829205) 

March 8, 2021:  The commissioners heard an update from the architect on the school bond projects.  https://www.transylvaniatimes.com/news/commissioners-hear-update-on-school-bond-project-transylvania-county-nc/article_ac9a7652-ecea-5f18-828c-3eac6bacddef.html

“The project is currently in the construction document phase, with plans scheduled to be finished by the month’s end. Once the designs are approved, construction bids will be sought. On the current timeline, work is expected to be finished at the three schools by December 2024.”

The update in the T. Times also included a memo from Jonathan Griffin, the county finance officer, about various options. 

July 13, 2021: The bids came back 25% over budget - $18.2 million over.  The school board discussed options. 

December 7, 2021: “At the Transylvania County Board of Education meeting on Tuesday, December 7, 2021, the School Bond Construction process made a much-awaited step forward. 

Due to unforeseen and unpredictable effects of the global pandemic, the construction industry has had to pivot. This has caused a world-wide increase in construction costs. During the meeting, the Board of Education received modified plans for each campus. These modified plans continue to meet the overarching goals of safety, relationships, modern learning environment, and design while accounting for the increase in costs. The board agreed unanimously on new design options that best serve our students and teachers.

The next step will be a meeting in January to set the timeline for construction. The projected start dates for the projects will be in Spring 2022 for Rosman and Fall 2022 for Brevard.” https://www.tcsnc.org/district_info/newsroom/headlines/school_bond_construction_moves_forward 

January 24, 2022: The school board unanimously approved the amended contracts for the Option #1 modified plan.  Tawny McCoy, chair, made remarks to be shared with the commissioners before the scheduled January 31st meeting.  She summarizes the situation and the plans. https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1fBMvVgBS449Q-FXyeW4qJdHhwMU_nBMF 

January 31, 2022: Joint meeting of the school board and the commissioners.  I have a copy of the minutes from the county, but they are incomplete and disjointed. (Trisha Hogan was out of town and didn’t take the minutes.) 

The school presented Option #1, which they unanimously support, answered commissioner questions, and asked for a timely response.  The commissioners must approve the amended contracts for the projects to move forward.  (See Dr. McDaris’ email to me from March 24, 2022.)   

March 28, 2022: The school bond projects were not on the commissioners’ agenda. To stay on schedule, the contracts must be approved by April 4.  Three people made public comment in favor of approval.  At the end of the meeting, Larry Chapman made heated comments about the school bond projects.  David Guice chided Larry for sending out emails to citizens with misinformation. 

March 31, 2022: Special called commissioner meeting.  The commissioners did not approve the contracts.  Rather, they are asking for a second opinion from an architectural consultant. The projects are now off-schedule.   

Here is the statement from Jason Chappell, chair: 

“In order to maximize the funds available for construction the Board of Commissioners will retain an architectural consultant to review the project scope, fees incurred to date and projected material costs over the course of the project,” Chappell said reading the letter to members of the school board in the audience for the special meeting. “This will provide the county taxpayers the necessary assurance that the amount requested is keeping with the industry standard and the realities of the current market.” https://www.transylvaniatimes.com/news/commissioners-seek-second-opinion-on-school-construction-fees/article_3b7e235e-b1f7-11ec-8e6b-63f3e57f8457.html 

Sources:

• Transylvania County General Obligation School Bond, obtained from the Board of Elections.  Nov. 6, 2018

• Statement of Results of the Special Bond Referendum – School Bonds.  County website, November 30, 2018.

• Minutes of the Transylvania County Board of Education and Transylvania County Board of Commissioners, January 16, 2019.  On Transylvania County Schools website.

• Transylvania Times, “Boards Discuss School Funding”, John Lanier, January 20, 2019

• FAQ from TCS website

• A description of the School Bond Construction Committee in 2021.  (Norris Barger has since retired.)

• Minutes of the 1/24/22 school board meeting.  This includes a statement from Chair Tawny McCoy for the commissioners.

• Minutes of the 1/31/22 joint meeting are not useful.  The meeting is recorded, however.

• Email that Larry Chapman sent out to Republican voters before the January 31, 2022 joint BOE/BOC meeting.

• March 24, 2022 email statement from Dr. Jeff McDaris, Superintendent of Schools, as vetted by school board attorney Chris Campbell, about the role of the county commissioners in approving contracts.

• Transylvania Times: Commissioners Seek Second Opinion on School Construction Fees.  April 1, 2022.