Last night, the City Council approved the initial step to place a GMHS campus bond referendum on the ballot for November 7, 2017. The referendum would ask the voters whether the City should issue debt in the amount of up to $120 Million for the construction of a new high school, and a part of a middle school:
QUESTION: Shall the City of Falls Church, Virginia, contract a debt and issue its general obligation bonds in an aggregate principal amount not to exceed one hundred twenty million dollars ($120,000,000.00) for the purpose of paying the costs incident to constructing, expanding, reconstructing, renovating, equipping and/or reequipping, in whole or in part, a new or improved High School and part of a middle school in the City of Falls Church, and shall Ordinance No. XXX of the City authorizing the issuance of such bonds be effective?
Read the entire Referendum Ordinance here.
The Superintendent sent a memo to the City Manager outlining a brief history of FCCPS, design costs, enrollment projections and operating costs amounts per school with a 4% annual increase. Click here to read the entire memo.
My concerns with this entire project (and more coming):
1. The enrollment projections go from 817 students today to 1368 students in year 2032. The bond bill (not including interest payments) is $88,000 per child and that isn’t even doubling the school enrollment.
2. The school life is 50 years and we are getting a 30 year bond which will ultimately cost us several million dollars more in interest expense.
3. The school has said operating costs will only go up 4% each year. This has never been the case in recent history – they always ask between 9 and 10%. Where is the supporting data?
4. Selling the land to offset the expenses is bad business for the city and citizens. Once that land is gone you can not get it back and land is valuable for our small little City.
5. Are the enrollment projects higher than normal because they expect to build new apartments? If so, don’t approve more apartments and keep the school small.
6. The tax increase could have a negative affect on market values and thereby making it more difficult to get the tax revenue from home owners that is needed to fund the debt. It appears this was not a consideration. Affordable housing for the elite only. FCC is not inclusive.