ESPLOST easily passes

Published 11:44 am Wednesday, March 22, 2017

DALTON, Ga. — Whitfield County Schools Superintendent Judy Gilreath said she was “beyond excited” Tuesday evening.

Voters in Dalton and Whitfield County appeared to have approved a five-year, 1 percent Education Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (ESPLOST) by a wide margin. It would be a continuation of an ESPLOST already in place.

At press time, the vote was 2,340 in favor to 753 against (75.65 percent to 24.35 percent). Results from the Tilton precinct had not been received because storm damage blocked a road, leaving poll workers unable to return. But officials with the Whitfield County elections office said only about 40 people had voted in that precinct.

“We just want to thank everyone who came out to vote, and we thank those who voted for the ESPLOST for their support,” said Dalton Public Schools Superintendent Jim Hawkins. “This was an important vote for the schools. We appreciate our community’s continued support.”

Chris Shiflett, president of the Citizens for Education Taskforce, a group of local residents who supported passage of the ESPLOST, said the margin of victory was larger than he’d hoped.

“We felt very good about the referendum. We thought it would win, but not by this margin,” he said.

The new five-year ESPLOST will begin on Jan. 1, 2018, and is projected to collect $98 million, with Whitfield County Schools receiving $61 million and Dalton Public Schools $37 million based on each system’s share of enrollment. Whitfield County Schools’ top priorities are replacing North Whitfield Middle School and Valley Point Middle School, which were built more than 50 years ago as high schools, with two new schools that would be built on the same campuses.

Dalton Public Schools’ top priority is “adding to, renovating, repairing, improving, equipping and furnishing existing school buildings or other buildings or facilities useful or desirable in connection therewith, including, but not limited to Brookwood School, City Park School, Roan School and Dalton High School.”

Though this ESPLOST won’t begin until Jan. 1, Gilreath says school system officials have plenty of work to do during the next nine months.

“One thing we have to do is to have a soil study to make sure that the sites are suitable for building,” she said. “We have no reason to believe they are not. But we will have to do that study. We will also be organizing a committee made up of administrators from the two schools, teachers, parents and students to plan what type of facilities they need. We will spend a good amount of time doing that.”

Whitfield County Board of Education Chairman Bill Worley says he expects to “hit the ground running.”

“We have a lot of work to do before we even start construction, and we will get started on that as soon as we can,” he said.

Gilreath and Worley said board members haven’t decided yet whether the system will work on both schools at the same time or get one underway before starting the other. The board also hasn’t decided whether to issue bonds to finance construction of one or both of the schools. Issuing bonds would let the system start construction sooner, without waiting for funds to come in. But it would leave less money for the actual work since some of the ESPLOST money would go to servicing that debt.

Hawkins said he will ask the members of the Dalton Board of Education to vote at their April meeting on an architect’s contract for the system’s top two priorities, Brookwood and City Park.

“That will be roofs, HVAC and interior renovations in both schools,” Hawkins said.

He said board members have not decided whether to issue bonds but officials hope they can do the work quickly without having to issue bonds.

Several people who voted said they thought the ESPLOST was vital for the two school systems.

“It’s time,” said Dalton resident Kathy Schleier. “This needs to be done.”

“As an educator, I think it’s important to not only voice our opinion but speak for the kids and what’s best for them,” said Melissa Ralston, a teacher at Dug Gap Elementary School.

“I wanted to support the ESPLOST for education,” said Peter Sigmon of Dalton. “It’s important to continue for the school system and our kids.”

Others indicated that the ESPLOST was preferable to a property tax increase to pay for the projects.

The ESPLOST will be the county’s fifth. Whitfield County has had an ESPLOST in place for all but one of the last 20 years.

The current five-year ESPLOST expires on Dec. 31 of this year and is expected to collect $81 million. It was originally expected to collect $105 million.

Staff writer Shaka Cobb contributed to this story.