Beaufort County voters have approved school bond referendums before. What went wrong?

For the first time in at least 20 years, voters denied the Beaufort County School District a major bond referendum to build new schools and carry out other capital projects.

Between 1995 and 2008, voters approved four school district bond referendums for projects totaling $448 million.

On Tuesday, they shot down the district’s largest request to date, a $217 million bond referendum and a 1 percent educational sales tax to pay off the new debt.

The revenue from the sales tax — an estimated $313 million over 10 years — would have allowed the district to reduce property taxes on its debt service by more than 42 percent. That would save the owner of a $285,000 home about $150 per year.

And the money the district borrowed through general obligation bonds would have paid for the construction of two new schools in Bluffton, nine building renovations, and numerous HVAC and roof replacements.

But on Tuesday, most Beaufort County residents voted no to both funding measures. The bond question failed 54.4 percent to 45.6 percent, and the sales tax failed 59.2 percent to 40.8 percent.

What went wrong?

There were two major problems at play: Disapproval of the school board and confusion over what it was asking for.

Many residents have been critical of the school board and district since September 2015, when The Island Packet reported Superintendent Jeff Moss had hired his wife to a district-level job around the same time that he altered the district’s nepotism rule — a controversy that resulted in two state ethics violations.

About two months later, in November 2015, Moss pitched the idea of an educational sales tax that would generate about $480 million, more than double what the district needed to complete its capital improvements plan.

“The voters were sending a message,” board member Joseph Dunkle said of the failed referendums, which were a scaled-down version of Moss’ original proposal. “They’re just dissatisfied.”

Member David Striebinger agreed, adding that the sales tax performing even worse than the bond referendum indicates some people want to give money to the schools, just not quite as much or not using sales-tax revenue.

“The public wants the board to change,” he said. “They don’t have any confidence in us, and I don’t think we’re ever going to get the money we need for required things in the district until we make some changes.”

Dunkle, who supported the sales-tax plan, said the board and district also failed to fully educate the public about the two funding measures.

Numerous voters said Tuesday they hadn’t expected to vote on a sales tax, let alone two. Beaufort County also placed a 1 percent sales tax on the ballot, but that question failed as well.

Others said they planned to read the questions and make up their minds when it was time to vote. Those people would miss out on information not included in the referendum question, like the specific cost of each project and the fact that the school board had promised to reduce property taxes on its debt service by more than 42 percent if both measures passed.

By then, it’s also too late for voters to ask questions if they don’t understand the referendums. And many didn’t.

Dunkle says some voters apparently shot down the proposals because they didn’t see their children’s schools on the projects list, even though that simply means the facilities are in good shape as it is.

“They’re right; every school wasn’t on there, because that in itself would be wasteful,” Dunkle said. “To put a new roof on there just because?”

What happens next?

The school district may present other options to the board to cope with student enrollment growth.

Its schools have experienced a 10 percent increase in enrollment since 2010, and the district anticipates those numbers to keep growing, particularly in southern Beaufort County. This year, there are already 11 schools at 90 percent capacity or above.

Temporary solutions may include larger class sizes, modular classrooms, redistricting and changes to which schools serve which grades. For example, a lower-capacity K-5 school may become a K-8 school, while an over-capacity high school may serve fewer grades.

“There’s a number of things that can be done; they’re just very unlikeable,” Moss said during his September town hall meeting at Hilton Head Island High School.

At the time, Moss said his staff was still working on a new capital improvement plan in case the referendums failed. Attempts to reach him since Tuesday have been unsuccessful.

On Thursday, district spokesman Jim Foster said the school board’s initial discussions on the capital improvement plan will begin at its two-day work session Nov. 18-19.

While the district could pay for some capital improvements out of its current budget, it would need to borrow money to carry out its largest projects, such as the construction of two new schools in Bluffton.

For example, the school board could choose to place a traditional bond referendum before voters in the spring, asking voters for permission to issue a certain amount of new debt for the projects on its revised list. The school board would then need to increase its tax millage rate to make payments on the debt.

Striebinger said it’s been his impression that the board would pursue a spring referendum after paring down its projects list to essentials.

How did the precincts vote?

A majority of residents voted no to the bond and sales-tax issues in Beaufort, St. Helena Island and Sun City, and in most of Bluffton, Hilton Head Island and Lady’s Island, a breakdown of the votes by precinct shows.

Some parts of the county were in favor of the sales tax: In northern Beaufort County, that was Dale, Lobeco, Seabrook and Sheldon, along with most areas of Burton and northern Port Royal.

There was only one precinct on Lady’s Island that supported the bond referendum, LI 3C, which encompasses two middle-income subdivisions, Telfair and Waterford Cove.

South of the Broad River, there was support for the educational referendums from more than a dozen precincts between Bluffton and Hilton Head.

The majority of those areas included lower- to middle-income neighborhoods, like Buck Island Road, Westbury, The Farm, Pine Ridge, Hidden Lakes and sections of Old Town. However, there were a few outliers, like Bluffton 4C, where 52 percent of voters favored the bond referendum despite the inclusion of high-end, gated communities May River Preserve and Hampton Lake and senior living community Benton House of Bluffton.

On Hilton Head, the areas that supported the district’s questions also skewed toward middle-incomes — such as Farmers Club, Squiresgate, Crosswinds and Wood Lake — as well as low-income areas and neighborhoods traditionally occupied by native islanders, like Baygall, Gumtree and Spanish Wells.

While both measures failed, one had even less support across the county. Nearly 60 percent of people voted no to the sales tax, compared to 54.6 percent opposition to the bond referendum.

The difference comes from a few precincts splitting their votes. Support fell away from the sole Lady’s Island neighborhoods that approved the bond issue, and from Burton along Broad River Boulevard, in Laurel Bay and Habersham and between S.C. 170 and U.S. 21.

In Bluffton, bond supporters voted against the sales tax in the Alljoy community, The Farm and Pine Ridge, May River Preserve and Hampton Lake, and Mill Creek.

On Hilton Head, it was Marshland and Spanish Wells roads that supported the bond but not the sales tax.

This story was originally published November 10, 2016 at 6:00 AM with the headline "Beaufort County voters have approved school bond referendums before. What went wrong?."