Rural Funding Lost, but Bond Could Pick Up Slack

By Ian Chrisafis & Victoria Carroway

Recent changes in the classifications of ‘rural counties’ have caused the Transylvania County Schools to lose about $60,000 in funding. According to Norris Barger, the director of business services for TCS, this funding was used to provide social workers and counseling at Davidson River School as part of the Rural and Low Income Schools grant program. In an email on the subject.

“We have funds remaining for this year and part of next year and then the grant funding will disappear,” said Barger.

The reason for this change in funding comes from a motion made by the state declaring that Brevard was now considered a part of the Asheville metropolitan area, a city 25 miles away from the edge of Brevard’s limits.

Graduation and attendance size were contributing factors in schools losing funding. At the beginning of 2017, the US Department of Education changed their policy on rural funding to exclude districts with more than 600 students enrolled in school. With more than approximately 3,500 students, TCS is far beyond that limit.  

However, the school board recently voted unanimously to request a bond from the county commissioners. The $68 million bond would go towards significant renovations at Brevard High and Rosman High. Brevard High assistant principal David Galloway was willing to talk facts and figures, and what effect the bond would have on the community.

“Initially they had a group come in and do a study, and they said the school system needed over $100 million for the nine schools,” Galloway said It got whittled down to $90 million, and now the school board has determined that was too much.” After consistent talks between the county commissioner’s office and the school board, the current figure was decided on. The referendum for the bond will be held during the general election in November.

Even after whittling down the figure from the steep initial estimate, there would still be a slight burden on the taxpayers if the bond passed.

“Depending on your property tax, [taxes] will go from eight cents to nine cents, and so estimating if you have $150,000 piece of property, that would be about ten dollars a month of tax increase, about $125 a year,” Galloway said. If the bond were to pass, the burden of this increase would fall the heaviest on the elderly retirees that flock to Brevard.

The worry with this is that those retirees with no children or grandchildren in Brevard would be more likely to vote against the bond, as they have no direct vested interest in the cause. The real challenge for the school board will be convincing these members of the community that this is worth their money. In the last minutes of the interview, Galloway gave a quote about the situation, and his personal ‘sales pitch’ to the community.

“Your future is your students and your kids. They’ll be the people running this county in twenty, twenty-five years. Investing in education, you can’t go wrong.”

 

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