CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The Charlotte-Mecklenburg School district is asking voters for roughly $1 billion in a record referendum four years after asking for roughly $300 million.
[Nearly $1B school bond package will be decided by voters Tuesday]
Channel 9 talked to school officials about how it handled the last multimillion-dollar bond and learned nine projects from that round are still unfinished.
Voters approved a bond package of $295 million in 2013 to cover 17 projects. Eight of the projects are complete, but the majority, 9 are not finished. The last one is scheduled to be complete by 2020.
[LINK: CMS 2013 Bond Projects]
"Actually building the project takes time, very much like building a home but vastly larger," Latarzja Henry, the district's executive director for Community Partnerships and Family Engagement, said.
She said getting voters to understand the funding and timeline for bond projects is one of the district's greatest challenges.
"Many people feel once they approve a bond there is an infusion of cash and we should be able to knock out project after project, and that's actually not the way that it works," Henry said.
Henry said CMS works with the county to prioritize and schedule projects based on when the county can send bond payments.
"One of the things important to remember -- we don't get the infusion of all those dollars at once," Henry said.
She said most of the 2013 projects are on schedule except for the project at the old Eastland Mall site, meant to relieve overcrowding at Albemarle Road middle and elementary schools.
The August 2017 opening is being pushed to 2018. Henry said the delay is related to the district working with the city and several governmental agencies.
Henry hopes voters are willing to pay the price for progress, even though the pace can seem slow.
Voters will cast their ballots Tuesday on the $922 million 2017 bond request. Leaders said it only addresses half of the district’s needs.
[LINK: CMS 2017 Bond Information]
Just like in 2013, the majority of the projects on the 2017 bond list are to help the district ease overcrowding. Seventy-eight percent of the schools are at or over capacity.
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