School bond elections

First, this piece from the AP, followed by a couple of comments.

FAIRMONT, W.Va. (AP) — Persuading West Virginia voters to approve a school bond is easier said than done.

Since 1971, the state’s 55 counties have presented 208 bonds for voter approval. The voters, though, have assented to only about 36 percent of them, according to the state Department of Education’s School Finance Office.

That low percentage even includes a 1982 amendment to the state Constitution that allowed bonds to be approved by more than 50 percent of voters, instead of 60 percent, which had been the law.

“It’s not easy to get a bond passed, or it would happen all the time,” said James Phares, superintendent of Marion County schools.

Many counties try to float smaller bonds by getting grants and other assistance from the state School Building Authority.That agency has paid out more than $1.1 billion in school construction funds since 1989, according to Executive Director Mark Manchin. Local funds for school construction amounted to roughly $500 million in that time.

But with rising construction costs and a growing list of schools that need renovation or rebuilding, local funds are going to have to make up a larger part of the picture, Manchin said.

The SBA doesn’t have a set funding formula for counties seeking to finance construction, Manchin said.

“We look at the total bond call, what they’re trying to do, the local effort and the health and safety of the students” in determining funding, he said.

Here in Cabell County, we seem to have had success in the two most recent bond proposals. In the most recent one, the school board played it right. The bond resulted in little increase in taxes, and it had something for almost every area of the county. The big omission was what to do with Enslow Middle School, which is approaching its 100th anniversary.