School overcrowding not backed by data
Superintendent Jeff Moss is asking the school board to send a $128 million bond referendum to the voters to alleviate what he says are overcrowded classrooms.
There’s only one catch. No one is quite certain as to the capacity of every school.
Board member JoAnn Orischak noted that only two schools in Bluffton are over 100 percent capacity. That’s when Moss said special education regulations and other programs could mean schools are more overcrowded than stats show.
He says the capacity figures used last fall to promote the $300 million referendum are no longer valid and accurate.
But Moss had no new data to support his claim. Ironically, one of the schools that is overcrowded is River Ridge Academy, completed just two years ago. Why didn’t Moss anticipate the growth as River Ridge was being constructed?
We need real data and not personal anecdotes. For example, board member Evva Anderson says Realtors are telling her that there is growth on Hilton Head with school-age children and board member Bill Payne says the same thing, adding that the sound of school buses rolling through Indigo Run, where he lives, is added proof.
Currently, only two schools are at 100 percent capacity and five-year projections do not support the notion that Bluffton is exploding.
All the growth in Bluffton is not families with school-age children.
Any decision the board makes must be based on real data. But if the district cannot provide that data, then we have a real problem.
Richard Bisi
Hilton Head Island
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This story was originally published November 11, 2017 at 6:00 AM with the headline "School overcrowding not backed by data."