NEWTON COUNTY – Members of the Newton County Board of Education met with local media members early Tuesday afternoon to discuss the upcoming ESPLOST VI plans that are set to begin discussion in the coming weeks.

Among the projected plans for the ESPLOST VI will be the increase in security measures, technology improvements and plans for athletic complexes at each high school.

Superintendent Dr. Duke Bradley III and chief operations officer Dr. Michael Barr led the charge in the presentation for the media, with board chair Shakila Henderson-Baker, vice-chair Abigail Coggin and director of public relations Sherri Partee adding their thoughts.

ESPLOST – short for Educational Special Purpose Operating Sales Tax – is a one percent sales tax that is voted on every five years. It is a one-cent sales tax on all retail purchases that is put back into investment for capital projects such as schools, buildings or complexes that may be used as long-term planning.

This will be the sixth iteration of ESPLOST in Newton County, with the first being approved back in 2000.

This will not be a new tax, but rather a continuation from the previous ESPLOST that is currently in place that is set to expire on Dec. 31, 2024.

It is projected that the revenue generation for the continuation will be $132 million.

Capital Improvement Plan

All projects that are currently projected to see benefit from the ESPLOST were listed in a five-part Capital Improvement Plan (CIP).

The most talked about part of that plan was in the schools’ athletic facilities – with the big takeaway that each of the three high schools (Newton, Alcovy and Eastside) are expected to receive their own athletic complexes through this project.

Currently all three of the schools share Sharp Stadium as its home football field. With the proposed complexes, each school will have their own stadiums complete with bathrooms, bleachers and concession stands. Additional areas such as weight rooms and storage facilities will also be a part of the complexes.

When asked what would come of Sharp Stadium, the expectation is that it will have a “continued use” and it will remain a destination for the school system.

It is expected that with the ESPLOST funding, each high school and middle school will receive some form of athletics upgrade.

Bradley said that sports programs are a “rallying point” for the community.

“Kids have returned for us a lot of value where we’ve made minimal investment,” Bradley said. “This is a fix to this.”

Henderson-Baker later clarified that while it may seem a lot of the investments are going into football, that none of the athletic programs will be neglected. She cited, in particular, the yearly dirt replacements on the baseball and softball fields and stated that if there were ever problems with any of the school’s fields that the board and executive staff will fix it when “notified.”

Listed as the first part of that plan was safety enhancement and improvement of security measures throughout the school systems. This to Bradley and the rest of the board, the most important thing on the entire CIP.

“Our first obligation is safety,” Bradley said. “We have a district that is appropriating funds to make sure our kids are safe and secure.”

Enhanced security measures are set to be put in place for all of the schools, with just under a dozen of them set to receive improvements for secure school entryways. This will ensure all of the schools in the system will have secure entryways. Bradley specifically mentioned some of the older elementary schools as those that are in the most need of enhanced security. 

Seven schools are also set to receive modernization renovations.

At the Jan. 16 BOE work session, Barr made it clear to the audience in attendance that safety is “fundamental” to the school system.

“And that’s really fundamental to our purpose – is making sure that our students and staff are safe and secure and able to learn in that type of environment,” Barr said.

The third portion of the plan deals with technology, as the board will continue to acquire the modern technology and tools needed for students to learn at the highest level possible.

Listed in the plans for technology are the acquisition of new laptops, additional system storage and the installation of cabling and fiber internet services. 

Furniture, fixtures and equipment were listed as the fourth portion of the plan – with furniture, band equipment, band uniforms and athletic equipment listed specifically as target points for purchase.

The consensus from the board was that children were in need of consistent upgrades and tools so that they could have the best chance for success.

Lastly, the replacement of school buses, as well as replacement of support vehicles were listed as the fifth portion of the plan. This would go directly hand-in-hand with the safety enhancement portion.

Not listed in the CIP, was the designation of fine arts funding. When asked as to why that was the case, Bradley mentioned that the board was gathering more feedback on how to move forward with fine arts funding.

Bradley acknowledged the fine arts’ importance within the school system. Once the district has the proper community feedback, the superintendent expects there to be focus on that area – particularly with General Education Fund (GEF) investments.

According to the BOE presentation, the CIP budget is $171,257,102 – with the aforementioned $132 million projected ESPLOST funding making up the majority of the funding. State capital outlay was listed to tentatively fund just over $5.1 million with general obligation bonds tentatively set to fund $33.6 million.

ESPLOST Important Dates

The board is set to vote on the adoption of ESPLOST VI and the general obligation bond resolution and related agreement at the next board meeting on Jan. 23.

In February, the Board of Elections will then approve the resolution with an election date set for May 21.

If ESPLOST VI passes before the voters, the ESPLOST will begin on Jan. 1, 2025 and end on Dec. 31, 2029.

Board Comments

During the Jan. 16 BOE work session, the board offered further comments to the special media presentation as well as the work session presentation.

Post 1 representative Trey Bailey said that the work done on the CIP made “his heart happy.”

“I’d just like to say this is good work – I appreciate you guys listening to our concerns and actually seeing them on the screen makes my heart happy,” Bailey said. “I think we can do this. I think the community can get behind this. I think they will get behind this.”

Henderson-Baker said that the feedback the community provides is being implemented for ESPLOST VI.

“I want to help the community understand that these are things that we heard you guys saying,” Henderson-Baker said. “So I really want people to understand that we hear feedback, we see feedback and it's our job and responsibility to take that to the operations team.”

What was just as important to the chair was that people should “shop locally” and support Newton County businesses so that the NCSS could best benefit. Henderson-Baker specifically used neighboring Rockdale County as an example.

“I always remind people that you all who live in Covington and Newton County go to Rockdale to shop, which means Rockdale School System benefits from those funds, not us,” Henderson-Baker said. “I want to encourage everyone to shop locally so that we can reap the benefits of that with our school system. Don’t trick down [Hwy] 138, trick down [Hwy] 278. So, we greatly appreciate it.”

Managing editor Phillip B. Hubbard contributed to this report.