Wake school board wants $680M bond referendum. Here’s what it would pay for
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- Board seeks $680M bond to fund most of an $832.3M plan.
- Bond would fund three new schools, eight major renovations and other upgrades.
- Paying county bonds raises tax rate 0.5¢, $22.50/yr on $450K home.
The Wake County school system wants the public’s help to pay for hundreds of millions of dollars in renovations to aging schools as well as to build new schools in eastern Wake.
On Tuesday, the school board unanimously passed a resolution asking the Wake County Board of Commissioners to put a $680 million school construction bond referendum on the Nov. 3 election ballot. The bonds would pay for most of an $832.3 million plan for three new schools, eight major renovations and other facilities needs during the 2027-28 and 2028-29 fiscal years.
Pending the approval of the commissioners, the referendum would be the first chance that voters have had to weigh in on a school bond since 2022. That year, voters overwhelmingly passed a $530..7 million school bond with 71% of the vote.
But since 2022, property taxes have risen sharply for many residents.
Under the county’s funding model, paying for Wake County school system and Wake Technical Community College bonds this fall would raise the property tax rate by a half-cent. That would be $22.50 more per year on a home assessed at $450,000. “It’s really up to the voters once we do our part of passing our resolution, laying out what our needs are, discussing the growth, taking care of our existing buildings,” said school board chair Tyler Swanson.
New schools in eastern Wake
Enrollment growth has slowed, to the point where Wake joined most of North Carolina’s school districts in losing students this school year.
Wake is now only projecting to add 2,633 more students over the next decade. But planners say there are still pockets of growth in areas such as eastern Wake.
Two of the new schools that would at least be partially funded by the bond are Marshburn Road Elementary in Lizard Lick and Little Creek Elementary at 2200 Old Bunn Road in Zebulon. The board chose the name Marshburn Road Elementary after rejecting the option to call it Lizard Lick Elementary.
The bond would also pay for the construction of the long-delayed Poole Road Elementary School at 6120 Poole Road in Southeast Raleigh.
Increasing bond focus on renovations
Planners say the slower growth means that the district can spend more resources on renovations in this bond issue.
Of the $832.3 million that would be spent over two years, $329.7 million would go to eight major renovations, compared to $143.2 million for the three new schools.
Of the remaining $359.4 million in what Wake calls program requirements, a portion would go to pay for smaller renovation projections as well as replacing aging furniture and equipment at existing schools.
The majority of the $2.9 billion that the district plans to spend over the next seven years on its building program would go toward projects at existing schools.
““We realized several years ago that we needed to intensify our efforts on our existing schools,” said Mark Strickland, the district’s chief of facilities and operations.
The eight major renovations in the bond are:
- Athens Drive High School in Raleigh
- Briarcliff Elementary School in Cary
- East Garner Middle School
- Ligon Middle School in Raleigh
- Cary High School
- Wendell Elementary School
- Washington Elementary School in Raleigh
- East Wake High School in Wendell
The Ligon project is the most expensive of the renovations. The school board recently approved a plan to demolish Ligon’s historic building and replace it with a new building on the site of the current ball fields.
