Voters in the Concord Community Schools district will decide Nov. 2 whether to renew the district’s referendum for up to eight years.
Concord’s original referendum passed in 2014 and expires in December.
The district is seeking to renew that referendum, but at a lower rate – the 2014 tax added a maximum of 40.5 cents per $100 of net assessed value. The renewal only asks for a maximum of 32 cents, about 20 percent less.
Concord Superintendent Dan Funston said the referendum dollars will help offset the nearly $400 per student the district loses due to property tax caps and the district’s comparatively low increase in state funding – about 3.2 percent to the state average of 5 percent.
He said it also helps the district maintain its buildings and keep class sizes low.
“We had the 19th highest academic growth from 2014 to 2019,” Funston said. “We believe that the referendum played a big part in that.”
If the referendum passes, Funston said the district hopes to expand its construction trades, robotics, advanced manufacturing and computer science programming.
“We have five times as many kids enrolled in construction trades now as we did three years ago,” he said. “We would like to expand our pathways at the high school to allow for some biomedical classes, as well.
If the measure fails, Funston said class sizes could rise and staff and programming costs would have to be cut.
The referendum vote is Tuesday, Nov. 2.
Contact Gemma atgdicarlo@wvpe.orgor follow her on Twitter at@gemma_dicarlo.
If you appreciate this kind of journalism on your local NPR station, please support it by donatinghere.
