$240M bond for Irmo-Chapin schools would improve facilities, ease need for rezoning
A $240 million bond proposal could be the best chance for parents in Lexington-Richland 5 to avoid being rezoned into a new school, the district's superintendent said.
Superintendent Akil Ross has made the connection at a series of virtual presentations on the bond proposal in recent weeks, just before voters in the Chapin-Irmo area school district are set to vote Nov. 5 on whether to allow the district to sell bonds for a slew of school improvements.
Without voters' approval of the bond, Ross said attendance lines between the Chapin and Dutch Fork areas could shift.
If the bond referendum ultimately passes, students at Ballentine Elementary will remain zoned for attendance at Dutch Fork High School, Ross said at a virtual lunch-and-learn on the bond referendum for Dutch Fork parents Oct. 4. But a defeat for the bond could mean a change in attendance lines around the elementary school on Bickley Road.
That's because the attendance lines will move east from the overcrowded Chapin and Lake Murray Elementary schools. Ross noted Chapin currently has students studying in eight portable classrooms on its campus, while Lake Murray has 16 portables. That raises a host of safety and security concerns for the district.
"You can see the challenges for lockdown because kids are already outside," he said in an online session for Chapin-area parents on Oct. 15 . "Shooter drills are different in portables than inside the building."
Those schools would become even more stressed when Chapin-era elementary schools add fifth grade from the current Chapin Intermediate School, as planned.
"Our current structure is not sustainable," Ross said.
The bond would allocate $14 million to expand both Chapin and Lake Murray Elementary. But without that expansion, students would instead be shifted east to Ballentine, while many current Ballentine students would be sent to other Dutch Fork-area schools instead.
"We want to expand these schools to make it bigger, and by making it bigger have to rezone less children," Ross said at an Oct. 4 session with Dutch Fork residents.
Specifically, residents in the Chelsea Park, Rolling Creek and Waterfall areas will move from the Chapin High School attendance area to Dutch Fork High School, Ross said.
Residents can put in their address on the school district website to find out how they could potentially be impacted by the zoning changes.
In June, the Lexington-Richland 5 school board took the unusual step of approving two different rezoning plans . A "default" plan will go into effect for the 2026-27 school year, with an alternate plan if voters approve the $240 million bond issue Nov. 5.
"We want to get this information out to the community so that they see the options, and by the time we get to 2026, that everyone will be aware of the impact," Ross said.
No tax increase needed
Ross explained that the bond is required because the $240 million price tag would exceed 8% of the district's bonding capacity — a threshhold over which Lexington-Richland 5 can't go without public approval via a referendum. The current debt limit represents $52.6 million of district spending, he said. The bond under consideration would not require the district to raise taxes to pay it off unless the district's debt load were to hit $400 million.
Other needs across the district will also be addressed through the referendum, including the odd layout of Harbison West and Nursery Road elementary schools. The two schools were build decades ago with what Ross described as a faddish open design without distinctly walled-off classroom, something that raises safety concerns today but that also impacts students' ability to learn absent distractions from next door.
"In one place you can be in three classrooms," Ross said. "Teaching in these spaces, you can constantly hear other classes. We're putting in walls more like Chapin Elementary."
The referendum would also allow the district to build a new Dutch Fork Elementary School, at a site Ross said the district has identified but not yet closed on. He said he has safety concerns about the current elementary school since it sits on a busy Broad River Road, which is slated to expand into a four-lane road.
Once the new school is built, the current Dutch Fork Elementary will be turned into the Richlex Education Center to house adult education services moved from Irmo High, the Academy for Success currently housed at Spring Hill High School and the online FIVE program from Piney Woods Elementary.
Once the Academy for Success moves from Spring Hill, a magnet school, it will open up more "choice" spots at the high school that could also alleviate space concerns at Chapin High School, Ross said.
Other benefits spread across the district would include:
A digital solutions and artificial intelligence lab at Dutch Fork High School that would cost $800,000
A construction and infrastructure workforce development lab at the Center for Advanced Technical Studies at $10.5 million
$30 million for a small business incubation center at Irmo High School
And a $21 million fine arts center/auditorium at Chapin High School.
$25 million worth of improvements to the district office, which previously had to move staff because of a mold outbreak .
$5 million could be spent across the district for new security features, including cameras and new "vestibule" entrances where visitors would come into any school through a secured entrance room that would remain secured from the rest of the building until a visitor is cleared.
If there is money left over, all three high schools would also receive climate-controlled sports practice facilities, which would cost $13.8 million.
