BY KARISSA MILLER

The Iredell County Board of Commissioners has denied the Iredell-Statesville Schools Board of Education’s request for up to $200 million to pay for a new high school.

During their meeting Tuesday night, commissioners approved a $120 million allocation for the new Weathers Creek High School. That figure includes the $80 million that voters approved for the project in 2020.

The official action by commissioners will allow the school system to move forward with the bidding process.

The I-SS Board formally requested up to $200 million for the new school two weeks ago. It was the largest request for a single school in county history.

County Manager Beth Mull advised commissioners that the county could borrow $40 million for the project and pay for the debt service with property tax revenues.

County officials are anticipating a significant influx of property tax revenues following the recent countywide property revaluation. The county’s tax base has increased by about 40 percent since the last revaluation, according to unofficial projections.

Mull also recommended commissioners roll the tax rate back from 53.75 cents per $100 valuation to 50 cents per $100 valuation. 

“Part of the funds from the reappraisal should be used to address some of the funding shortfall for the new high school and used, in conjunction with other leveraging resources, to start saving for an additional school that has already been mentioned by the Board of Education,” she said.

Cost estimates for the new high school have increased significantly since the 2020 bond referendum due to rising construction costs. I-SS officials have also increased the capacity of the school in anticipation of future needs.

In the school board’s request for up to $200 million, they also recommended the county consider public-private partnerships in which partners such as Duke Energy would have covered some of the major costs up front with the county financing those costs over time.

That suggestion proved to be a nonstarter for the county.

The county manager told the board that the companies involved would not provide specific cost estimates without the county signing a nondisclosure agreement. Mull said she refused to sign a nondisclosure agreement because it’s a public project involving taxpayer money. 

Board members publicly questioned the school district’s track record on the project — and pushed back against the school board’s criticism of commissioners.

Commissioner Brad Stroud expressed his frustrations about the comments made by I-SS Board members on Monday night.

Stroud pointed out that many of the comments were not factual.

“It took 1,041 days for Iredell-Statesville Schools to ask for $200 million of taxpayer money. We haven’t given you an answer in 14 days. How inconsiderate of us to be concerned with impact of citizens and the taxpayers of this county, as well as the impact of the county budget for this year and many years to come,” Stroud said.

Stroud applauded I-SS Board members Brian Sloan and Abby Trent for questioning the $200 million funding request.

“You don’t care where this money comes from,” he said of the other school board members, “but the people of this county do.”

While conceding there is a need for the new high school, Stroud said it should not come at such a high price.

He also made it clear that county commissioners did not run to the news media to talk about the funding request for the new high school last week. Commissioners, he said, gave their views about the funding request after being approached by the media.

Vice Chairman Bert Connolly also took offense with comments made by school board members.

“If you are talking things that aren’t true—I’m going to call you out on it,” he said.

Connolly said that I-SS Board members were angry with him because at a previous meeting he talked about Mooresville Graded School District’s new middle school. That project, which was funded by the 2020 bond referendum, is almost finished.

“I will not play your games when it comes to the people,” Connolly said. “I won’t approve anyone to have a blank check.”

Commissioner Gene Houpe said he supported the 2020 bond referendum. But he also opposed spending $200 million on the new school without voter approval.

“I’m not going to throw daggers, but we are going to have to work together. The high school is needed,” Houpe said.