sixcat

I agree debt isn't necessarily a bad thing in-and-of-itself. But the real estate tax rate in Tazewell County is $0.055 per $100 of assessed value. It's $0.10707 in Mecklenburg County with a 3/4 cent increase coming in 2019. And they still can't afford to pay everything they owe!

This is a budget rather than debt service but still offers good insight into what's already a difficult financial situation in CharMeck.

Funny you should say that. He is actually house shopping as we speak in the Mooresville area. His job requires him to be within a certain radius so, parts of Mooresville are not an option. He seems fed up with what's happened in recent years in Cornelius. Especially given he essentially pays taxes twice.

I should also add, residents of Cornelius pay separate taxes to Mecklenburg County and the Town of Cornelius. Cornelius used only Town tax revenue to fund the new schools.

Maybe I should have been a bit more explanatory. I'm not attempting to be argumentative either so, don't take it as such! My brother lives in Cornelius, not Mooresville, which lies in Iredell County. Cornelius is in Mecklenburg County and is a part of the CharMeck school district. How does it make sense for the Town of Cornelius (population 28,500) to take on $245 million in debt immediately followed by the remainder of the CharMeck school district taking on an additional $2 billion for the same cause? To further compound those issues in Cornelius, they had an agreement in place at the time to have the Town of Cornelius control of the new schools given they had agreed to fund them. Which meant CharMeck wouldn't be permitted to rearrange school boundaries to send students from outside the Town of Cornelius to the new schools. CharMeck reneged on the agreement and immediately rearranged school boundaries before the new schools even opened. Using Hough High School as an example, the Town of Cornelius had the school designed and built to house 1,800 students. When CharMeck rearranged boundaries, kids from North Meck were rerouted to Hough where the current enrollment now stands at 2,572. Hough High School opened in 2012 and is already well over 30% over designed capacity! Now, Cornelius is preparing litigation to formulate its own independent school district. Which, incidentally, will cost the school district more money to fight in court.

I'm not familiar with WV, KY, TN and SC. The quick, simple answer for NC.....debt! Generational, chocking, crippling debt! The town my brother lives in outside of Charlotte has built 3 elaborate new schools since 2012 ranging in cost from $65 million to $98 million. My brothers great-great-grandchildren will still be repaying that debt. I believe the total cost was in the neighborhood of $245 million. The county also spent additional money on a series of public parks linking each of the 3 school properties together. The entire schools/park property is an incredibly beautiful space but is it really necessary? Will it attract more people to move to the area to raise tax revenue to make that expense worthwhile? I'm not sure but that's a huge debt service for a town of 28,500. In February 2016, Charlotte - Mecklenburg County Schools signed a $2 Billion Dollar agreement to build a series of schools around the county over the next 10 years. I get Charlotte is huge and continues to grow, but $2 billion dollars is an astronomical figure!

I was watching an interesting HBO segment featuring Joe Maddon on Youtube last night. First of all, Maddon is as intellectually gifted and cerebral as they come. The piece followed Maddon into his hometown of Hazelton, PA. Going back a couple of decades, the town had begun to deteriorate and decline. Schools were closed and consolidated with neighboring schools destroying traditional community pride and rivalries. What struck me in the piece is when Maddon started discussing neighborhoods and communities being tied together through the local schools (5:50-6:50 in the video). Maddon said in the piece about his childhood arch-rival high school being closed, "The fact that we had those traditional rivals was legitimate. The Thanksgiving football game was nasty. It was fabulous! No-more. It's self-destructive behavior when you subtract those kind of traditional events from a community". He correlates this "consolidation" of communities and schools to rises in crime and destructive behavior. I would encourage anyone to watch this piece. It's well worth the 25 minute investment in time.

As is the case with most SWVA localities, water, sewer, storm and electrical would likely need significant upgrades before a new school would be permitted. If roads and streets surrounding the proposed school site are sufficient, you're ahead of the game. The utilities are something Galax never considered. But they didn't listen to those telling them to look into it before making any decisions either. Now, they have a 54 acre parcel they paid 270k for they can't give away.

Depending on infrastructure improvements required for new school construction in the areas where the new schools could be built, you may be understating the total cost a bit. Highway improvements and utility improvements necessary for permitting for new school construction can run in the tens-of-millions-of-dollars. Add that to building construction and you could be looking at well over $100 million for two school sites! Ask Galax how shortsighted they were in considering everything entailed in new school construction!

Carroll is dropping to Class 3 next cycle. And are actually well below the Class 4 threshold. Population is dropping all around this area.

Worst kept "secret" in Virginia! Mark Dixon has officially been named boys head varsity basketball coach at Galax. Many, many other changes "officially" announced as well. Not the least of which, a new principal and assistant principal at all three schools! We're hopeful things will improve with new leadership but fear the wrong leaders are being replaced. Discipline has been a major issue in recent years, especially at the high school. The most recent elections were a glaring mandate on city council to effect change within the school system. We shall see if the first wave of changes are effective!

Galax has won 4 of the past 5 Class 1 soccer state championships. The current roster features 18 players below the junior level of high school. Could be a long run of state title contention.

As the old saying goes, where there is smoke, there is fire! This has been a hot topic across Virginia for several years because it's based in truth. I don't know the why's or the how's behind the policy shift in Augusta County. My former boss left Galax to return to Augusta County about three and a half years ago. His father-in-law passed away so he moved back to care for his elderly mother-in-law and parents. He grew up there and isn't a fan of the "manipulation taking place within the school system to give county schools as many opportunities as possible to compete on a state level". Those are his exact words in a recent letter to the editor. His belief is, they will shift boundaries slowly, so not to draw too much attention. Buffalo Gap will eventually become Class 1 along with Riverheads while Fort Defiance, Wilson Memorial and Stuarts Draft will be Class 3. The thought behind this is, Class 3 is more "top heavy" while Class 2 has a competitive balance unmatched in the lower 4 classifications. Class 3 would give those schools more and better opportunities to compete for state titles. I don't know if this is indeed true, but my former boss seems convinced it is.

Augusta County will rearrange school district boundaries in whatever way they have to in order for Riverheads to remain Class 1. They will eventually perfect the system so Buffalo Gap will fall to 1A as well. https://www.newsleader.com/story/news/local/2015/02/06/county-school-zones-changing/22978385/

Well played game by Honaker and Galax. The throw to the plate was an absolute thing of beauty. Tip of the cap to the center fielder and catcher. At least the players decided the game this time rather than dumb decisions by staff and administration!

It was my understanding, LCA's agreement with VHSL was that each student counts as one and one-half towards VHSL ADM figures to offset their being allowed to recruit. LCA is home to 812 students in 9th through 12th grades. In order to compete at the 4A level, it chose a multiplier to make up for the deficit of facing schools with larger populations. Each student will count as one-and-a-half to make up for that deficit. The above quote is from the Lynchburg News and Advance on May 20, 2015. It doesn't appear to be printed or worded correctly. I understood the rule to be each student in grades 9-12 would be counted as 1.5 students to offset LCA's ability to recruit. The link provided by the OP has LCA at 738 so their official VHSL ADM would be 1107 (738 x 1.5 = 1107). Which would place them in the upper limit of Class 3 with only six Class 3 schools larger than 1107. Am I not understanding the agreement correctly? Edit to add: I completely agree with your first thought. Given the volume of fluctuation for some schools between classifications, it seems like a 5 class system may be a little less volatile.

Carroll County will drop to Class 3 for the next cycle having already fallen well below the threshold for Class 4. Grayson County is already very close to the Class 1 threshold and could possibly drop. Grayson had 680 students for the 2002-2003 school year. According to the link provided by the OP, they are now sitting at 489 with an 8th grade class roughly 26 students smaller than the current senior class. I expect to see Grayson in Class 1 next cycle.

The same link I provided earlier shows Grayson County High School having an enrollment of 680 for the 2002-2003 school year. So, yes, It is shocking! For the record, I grew up in Fries and graduated from Grayson.

The numbers fluctuate regardless of school district so, if that was sent home to parents, it may be more reflective of current enrollment figures. All-in-all, I think it will be a positive thing for Grayson County to be 1A. They will be competitive on a state level in 1A in a lot of different sports.

The 502 number is the official Virginia Department or Education figure, date effective November 16, 2017. http://www.doe.virginia.gov/statistics_reports/enrollment/fall_membership/report_data.shtml Click on the link for "School Totals By Grade".

Grayson is currently sitting at 502 according to VADOE. The current 8th grade enrollment is 95 while the senior class enrollment is 121. A reduction of 26 students, at face value, places them at 476 this fall. In all likelihood, 1A will be in the cards for the next cycle. I can't see Grayson gaining enrollment anytime soon. If they do, it would be bucking a 20 year trend. The most likely scenario will be Grayson losing a few more than the 26 student difference between the senior and 8th grade classes. Grayson County families are moving away. Those moving in are over 50, retired, no kids or empty nesters. The over 50 demographic is rising while the under 18 set is shrinking.

The last sentence is a distinct possibility given the decline in system enrollment over the past decade. Grayson has averaged nearly a 8% decline in school system enrollment every two year cycle over the past decade. As for the rest, playing down in competition hurt the basketball team significantly come playoff time. They lost a relatively noncompetitive game to Union in the first round. But Grayson is 1A program currently to be honest without the benefit of playing in the 1A postseason.

Folks in Grayson County are very upset not to have made the Regional tournament in softball after finishing with a record of 13-6. By choosing not to enter the SWD and remain in the MED, 12 of their 19 opponents were 1A. This will only continue for other sports as well as long as they play down in competition. Didn't several folks on this forum predict such an outcome? I think maybe I was one of them!

I was under the impression Harner had resigned to pursue other possibilities. Is that not accurate? Maybe hearing the Mount Airy rumors among other things led to some misinformation getting spread around. Mount Airy hired JK Adkins to replace Kelly Holder. Adkins is a nice pick-up for them to replace a living legend in Holder. Holder averaged 10.26 wins per season over 19 years at Mount Airy! Adkins took over an East Wilkes program in 2013 that had won 4 games in 7 years and won 13 games by his third season. He turned that program into a perennial playoff contender in the toughest small-school conference in North Carolina. No way Harner was getting that job over Adkins.

This Braves team reminds me of the 2015 Cubs. Stockpiled with young, aggressive, immensely talented kids who don't know they aren't supposed to compete for division titles yet. They will be fun to watch over the next few years if the organization can surround them with the right mix of pitching and veteran leadership while keeping them all healthy. With that said, my Cubs are showing why it's a double edged sward to have that amount of young talent win that early. They get arrogant, over confident and take that talent for granted. Example, the most gifted middle infielder of my lifetime, Javy Baez, leads MLB with 8 errors through 30 games. He's never had more than 11 in any previous season.