Part 3:
Building a Better Future for the Students of Lawrence County: Funding the Construction and Renovation Needs for Our Schools
(This article is the third of a series that will cover topics pertaining to planning, remodeling, building, and financing school facilities in Lawrence County.)
In the previous two articles, I have provided information about the contents of our school system’s District Facilities Plan (DFP) and about the Local Planning Committee (LPC) who developed the plan after input from architects, engineers, and community members. As an update, the Lawrence County Schools’ DFP has been approved by the Lawrence County Board of Education and has been sent to the Kentucky Department of Education (KDE) for final approval. With their approval, the 2023 Lawrence County DFP becomes the plan that drives all construction projects in our school system for the next four years.
As outlined in previous articles, many renovations are listed at all schools in Lawrence County. The largest project is the construction of a new Louisa West Elementary that would contain preschool through second grade students. If you have recently visited the West, you certainly realize that replacing the building is necessary, even though the custodial and maintenance staff do an excellent job of cleaning and repairing. Unfortunately, building costs have increased tremendously over the past few years, and according to our architect consultants, a new Louisa West building would cost over $27 million.
That leads us to the BIG question: How will we pay for the new school AND the other priority items that are listed in the DFP?
The simple answer is “taxes that can be matched by the state government.” A more detailed answer deals with terms such as bonding potential, recallable nickel tax, and state equalization. Here is an explanation of each term and how it relates to our situation in Lawrence County:
- Bonding Potential: If you were to purchase a new home, you would likely go to a bank first to see how much money you could afford to borrow. For a school district, bonding potential refers to the amount of money that we can reasonably afford for one or more building projects over the next 20 years. According to our financial advisors at Ross, Sinclaire, and Associates, the Lawrence County School District can bond a maximum of $15 million without adding any additional taxes.
- Recallable Nickel Tax: In order to increase bonding potential, school districts can levy one or more additional nickel taxes to property owners. One nickel tax would add approximately 5 cents to every $100 of property value. For transparency, the nickel tax is calculated for each school district individually. Based on state calculations, the Lawrence County nickel tax would be around 6 cents per $100 of property value. According to information provided on the Kentucky Department of Education website, several districts in our region have the recallable nickel tax. Two of those districts include Paintsville and Martin County. The nickel tax in Paintsville is actually 5.4 cents per $100, while Martin County’s is 6.7 cents per $100.
- State Equalization: Every district that has passed the nickel tax has received equalization, or matching, funds from the state legislature. According to our financial advisors, one nickel tax would generate $5.75 million over the next 20 years from local tax payers. The state equalization (or money that would be GIVEN to Lawrence County Schools by the state legislature from the state budget) for one nickel tax would be $6.75 million over the next 20 years with the potential for even more. As a side note, I have personally spoken with state representatives, state senators, the governor, and even Rocky Adkins, who is an advisor to Governor Andy Beshear. According to Mr. Adkins and others, the state legislature will only consider providing these funds if the local district has the nickel tax.
The following graph provides a summary of the Lawrence County bonding potential for the next 20 years, as provided by Ross, Sinclaire, and Associates financial advisors.
Lawrence County Schools’ Twenty-Year Bonding Potential Summary
| BONDING POTENTIAL | WITH 1 NICKEL | WITH 2 NICKELS |
| Current Base | $15 million | $15 million |
| Additional Nickel Tax | $5.75 million | $11.5 million |
| Additional State Match | $6.75 million | $13.5 million |
| Total | $27.5 million | $40.0 million |
Here is another crucial question: Do we really need 2 additional nickels to replace Louisa West Elementary?
School officials were provided an estimate for the cost of a preschool – 2nd grade Louisa West by Ross Tarrant Architects. According to RTA, a new Louisa West would cost approximately $27 million, but that estimate does not include the cost of property or the cost of site preparation. Depending on the property, a new Louisa West would likely cost closer to $30 million. Keep in mind, we must address other needs within our district such as a new roof for Louisa Middle and other projects at Blaine, Fallsburg, Louisa East, and Lawrence County High School. Based on the information provided to us, two nickels with state equalization are needed to build a new Louisa West and to make necessary renovations to other schools.
My next article will focus on comparing tax rates in our region including recallable nickels, property tax, and motor vehicle taxes. Lord willing, I will publish Article #4 next week.
As always, let’s focus on building a better future for the students of Lawrence County. OUR STUDENTS ARE WORTH IT!
#AllinLC
Dr. Robbie Fletcher
606.638.9671
robbie.fletcher@lawrence.kyschools.us
All of the articles in the series can be found on our website:
https://www.lawrence.kyschools.us/documents/school-year-2022-2023/local-planning-committee/396589
All IN,
Dr. Robbie Fletcher
Superintendent, Lawrence County Schools
I would like to know what you do with all of the tax money you get now. Every bill I pay has a school tax on it. This is in addition to the tax you already get from property taxes. Adding more tax or creating an additional tax is the easy way out. LCHS was built without the tax. Louisa Middle was built without the tax. It seems like someone is not managing their money right. Face the fact, Lawrence County is a poor county and the people cannot afford an additional tax. Didn’t Martin County get a lot of their new High School paid for because of damage from blasting because of a new STATE HIGHWAY. Yes they did. The school system should have been planning for this many years ago. You also should have been planning for a new high school years ago. The High School was completed in 1977. In the future are you going to add another tax to replace it. NEW TAXES ARE THE EASY WAY. It’s not right for the people paying them.
I think John should be superintendent. He has it all figured out. He can accomplish the day to day operations of the county’s schools without any cost at all and build new facilities for free! Yay John!
Ok, if you know all the answers please advise. I’m listening.
Never claimed to have any answers. That was you, remember?
Well then, you know NOTHING. You said it, I didn’t. LMAO.
The taxpayers of Ky paid for Martin County’s new High School. They thought they might sue the road crew for the so called damage and the board condemed the school. But they forgot about the road construction company could file bankruptcy.
So the Ky taxpayers bailed them out.
Now they are wanting the Ky taxpayers to bail them out on their water situation.
There you go. Ky. Taxpayers bailed them out. It wasn’t just Martin County taxpayers
And I will pay more taxes on my project house.
Your Republican party at work folks
This school district was given money by the legislature to fund teacher and staff raises. We didn’t get them. We keep losing teachers and staff because they are going elsewhere to find employment where they are paid more and treated better. Your faculty and staff is financially hurting and working in poor conditions because we are short staffed. Teachers never get a full week of planning time because they are covering classes because we have a sub shortage. Aides, secretaries, kitchen staff, and maintenance workers are leaving so all of those areas are short staffed and many more are planning to leave. The ones left behind are picking up the slack but are not compensated. We are already financially struggling but now they want to tax us even more. Absolutely selfish. Some may make light that it doesn’t add up to much a year, but to someone already struggling where every penny counts…it matters. More than most that work in this school system are supplementing their income by a second job while sacrificing family time. That should not be!
Couldn’t be a better comment.
Why can’t lawrence co build 1 elementary school and have all elementary kids in same building
Preschool k-5 grade
First, the plan to consolidate the middle school grades is a mistake. Blaine and fallsburg should keep their middle school grades. If you combine them it will be larger classrooms and less one on one for the kids. Then you will say the LMC is not big enough so you need to build on or build a new one. More money spent.
Next, let’s address the funding of the new louisa west. I thought in prior article you stated it would 85% of the new school to repair LW. 27,000,000 x 85%=$22,950,000. Now you have come out and admitted that 27mil don’t include property etc. You say it’s closer to 30mil, and we all know there is always overages. So why shouldn’t LC save the minimum $7mil dollars? What about the old louisa west building? Will it be torn down? What about that cost? We all know it will remain as it is in the lawrence education system and we will as tax payers continue to pay for this building that is too bad to house the kids. At the end of it your spending our money sir focus less on artifical turf/ soccer fields and more on reparing the current louisa west. We don’t need a Shiney new building on the hill we need basic infrastructure that works and good teachers. By the way since you like simple tables in your article put one together showing current spending by department as a percentage. Let’s see how much money is in administrative, teachers salaries, maintenance, new expenditures, etc. Then we can see better how our money is currently being spent. Thanks.
I’m so poor I can’t even rub two nickels together, just like the public library Fletcher has champagne taste on a water budget
I think it would be very unethical to burden the residents of Lawrence County with more debt. I also like the part where they try the guilt trip on us about if you want a brighter future and smarter kids we need a new school. Last time I checked the curriculum stays the same regardless of where it’s taught. There is no future for our children in Lawrence County unless they want to teach or work at TRMC because the rich business owners don’t want to attract new businesses that pay a higher wage. If they do that who are they gonna get to work at their restaurant or gas station for minimum wage? The school system has plenty of openings and they wonder why they can’t fill those positions. Maybe it’s because if that employee isn’t a teacher and they need health insurance after taxes they bring home less than a $100.00 and now they want to tax that even more. While we are on the topic let’s build a 1.4 million dollar softball building and spend another million on some turf for the football field. Funny how that can be funded but you smack the teachers in the face again with a big .01% raise which is a joke. You all can always find money for the things you want and lie and say you can’t for the things you don’t want. Everything in LC is so politically motivated that you all hurt the county, the residents and the children. Heaven forbid you all work together and do what’s right. It’s sad that the best you all can do is have a big ribbon cutting ceremony for a gas station or another restaurant. Maybe next physical year you all can come together and add a 1/2 percent raise to help fill those vacant teaching jobs, maybe for the non certified positions you could make it where they bring home $103 after taxes and insurance. As usual it’s sports over everything!!!!!!!!
👏👏👏👏👏
Reduce library tax the same amount school tax goes up. Then we have no increase in taxes and our money gets diverted to things we actually need. It won’t make everyone happy, but it will be a reasonable compromise.
How about turn the library into a school? problem solved!
The library does lower its tax rate every year. They’ve done it for 5-6 years now.
Don’t know about lowering there tax rates maybe they just kept the same rate
They don’t. They lower it. Read it here on the lazer or on the library website.
From reading the LC Library Board minutes, you can’t tell what they are doing. Not enough information in those minutes to inform the reader. That seems to be the goal. Don’t see those taxes going down.
We need another Bill Cheek.