OT - Union County School District Bond Issue

[Lord McBuckethead]

Who cares, voters.

[Liverpooldawg]

This didn't pass with a vote 69% for the against. Dumb 17n voters.

God I hate our state, and this is why our State will always be 50 out of 50 when it comes to education. I am so glad that the voters in the 60s and 70s invested in our school districts across the state, because current voters have zero shits on investing for the future. Mostly because of how badly educated they are.

I guess their kids better get used to walking into the parking lot and entering a big series of shitty temporary trailers for class, and remember you dumbasses voted for it. They were asking for 18.5 million, not 200 million like DeSoto is doing. Have you guys ever been in one of those temporary classrooms. They 17n suck. Bad air quality, bad acoustics, bad HVAC, not to mention they don't meet the space requirements for a classroom space set by both the federal guidelines on classroom design nor the State's. There is a reason why classrooms have minimum dimensions.

18.5 million is nothing. It would have been about $600 bucks a year on the average home in Union County. Half that if they were homestead, which the vast majority are.

Your local taxes are the ones you feel, see, experience the effects of on a daily basis.

What would the % of that tax increase be? That seems like a pretty large increase % wise. I did see it would have also raised the price of car tags.

[Furlow]

How much is enough ? Between Tupelo & Lee County schools are spending almost 250 million a year. School taxes are by far the largest part of real property taxes. Schools are an out dated failed model as now executed.

[Cooterpoot]

I don't have a problem with it. It was not a great plan and money is so tight for people right now. They should come up with a better plan that's not as costly. Money doesn't fix education either. Especially in MS where it's being funneled to certain locals.

[Johnson85]

This didn't pass with a vote 69% for the against. Dumb 17n voters.

God I hate our state, and this is why our State will always be 50 out of 50 when it comes to education. I am so glad that the voters in the 60s and 70s invested in our school districts across the state, because current voters have zero shits on investing for the future. Mostly because of how badly educated they are.

I guess their kids better get used to walking into the parking lot and entering a big series of shitty temporary trailers for class, and remember you dumbasses voted for it. They were asking for 18.5 million, not 200 million like DeSoto is doing. Have you guys ever been in one of those temporary classrooms. They 17n suck. Bad air quality, bad acoustics, bad HVAC, not to mention they don't meet the space requirements for a classroom space set by both the federal guidelines on classroom design nor the State's. There is a reason why classrooms have minimum dimensions.

18.5 million is nothing. It would have been about $600 bucks a year on the average home in Union County. Half that if they were homestead, which the vast majority are.

Your local taxes are the ones you feel, see, experience the effects of on a daily basis.

I don't know anything about the Union County situation, but a $600 increase for the average home is pretty massive. I have relatively high property taxes for the area and that'd still be more than a 10% increase for me even if it was only a $600 increase. That'd probably be something more like a 20% increase for the average home.

It seems like that's more of a tax base issue than dumb voter issue if I had to guess. Looks like the median household income is ~$50k in Union County. So assuming the median household lives in the average house, that's about 1.2% of their gross income gone next year. Just for one tax increase; that doesn't count what they're already spending on school taxes. And this is being proposed at a time when they're likely also losing a percent or two in real income to inflation this year after probably have lost more than that the last few years, as the median real income has dropped for three years now.

I get the disappointment if you have students learning in trailers, but I'd have trouble blaming voters for that one.

[Fader21]

Our state has actually improved education significantly in the last 10-15 years. We are now ranked among 35-45 in state education depending on your source. Mississippi graduation has improved up to 20th in the country last reported for 2023 by USNews.com. NEAP scores shows that MS is not last any any category 4th, 8th, 12th grade.

[KB21]

What needs to be done is people should get tax breaks for private school and home school.

[memsu06]

How much has the lottery helped?

In Alabama they're always complaining about school budgets, but nope can't have a lottery.

[Goldendawg]

How much has the lottery helped?

In Alabama they're always complaining about school budgets, but nope can't have a lottery.

I thought beer sales, then liquor sales, then casinos on barges on tributaries, then stand along casinos close to some water, then the lottery would have us awash in tax $ for the schools. What in the cornbread H*LL has gone wrong?**** Does Union County also have a separate school district for the New Albany City Schools? Administrative staffing costs are not cheap by any means and some MS counties have multiple districts still, I think.

[IngomarDawg]

The problem a vast majority of the voters had was not the bond itself. It was that a large portion of the 18.5 million was going to various sports facilities/buildings. In tough times, people don't want their money going to new lights for the baseball field.

[Leroy Jenkins]

How many schools does Union county have?

East union, West Union, New Albany, Myrtle, Ingomar. Is that a lot for 25k people?

[Goldendawg]

Even some some small schools now feature Football, MBB, Baseball, Golf, Archery, Track/Cross Country, Weight lifting (Men & Women), Soccer, Tennis, WBB, Softball, Volleyball, & Bowling. A lot of this gets help with constant fund raising by booster groups. Coaching staffs, facilities, referees, utilities, travel, uniforms & travel are not cheap.

[Goldendawg]

How many schools does Union county have?

East union, West Union, New Albany, Myrtle, Ingomar. Is that a lot for 25k people?

My home county consolidated from 4 High Schools to 2 about 30 or so years ago and some people are still angry about it. The 2 still go through 8th grade and students can go to HS of their choice. Yes, "recruiting" for the best athletes goes on from the remaining two HS's.

[DownwardDawg]

I love Mississippi. It will always be home to me, but since moving to Tennessee 2 years ago I'm like "wow". What a difference.

[Pinto]

Best thing for Union County is to consolidate to one high school. K-6 at the current schools and 7-12 at a new school. Most of the county schools don?t offer enough credits now to be accredited. The only reason they are is the CTE classes. That being said none of this will ever happen because the people that teach there grew up there. No mobility in any of the communities and the only identity the communities have are the schools. Also no superintendent that has ties there will have the nuts to shut anything down.

Lastly, no county in MS should have more than one school district. Needs to be a law. If Desoto can have one district, all counties can.

[Offshore Dawg]

How much is enough ? Between Tupelo & Lee County schools are spending almost 250 million a year. School taxes are by far the largest part of real property taxes. Schools are an out dated failed model as now executed.

more money to be stolen.

[Wink&aPrayer]

Until districts talk consolidation, then don't talk about more taxes. Union county as a whole has 5 H/S's total and that's 3 too many

[Lord McBuckethead]

The problem a vast majority of the voters had was not the bond itself. It was that a large portion of the 18.5 million was going to various sports facilities/buildings. In tough times, people don't want their money going to new lights for the baseball field.

Who cares, voters.

[Lord McBuckethead]

What would the % of that tax increase be? That seems like a pretty large increase % wise. I did see it would have also raised the price of car tags.

Their current millage is 44.75 for the school district. New Albany is at 85.
If their average property in the county is assessed at 140k, and the millage increase is 5 points for the bond, that is $700 before homestead.

[Cooterpoot]

How many schools does Union county have?

East union, West Union, New Albany, Myrtle, Ingomar. Is that a lot for 25k people?

Bunch of 1A/2A size schools like that makes no sense.

[Lord McBuckethead]

Best thing for Union County is to consolidate to one high school. K-6 at the current schools and 7-12 at a new school. Most of the county schools don?t offer enough credits now to be accredited. The only reason they are is the CTE classes. That being said none of this will ever happen because the people that teach there grew up there. No mobility in any of the communities and the only identity the communities have are the schools. Also no superintendent that has ties there will have the nuts to shut anything down.

Lastly, no county in MS should have more than one school district. Needs to be a law. If Desoto can have one district, all counties can.

Oh, I agree with all of this. But.... they couldn't pass an 18.5 million bond, a new High School (which would absolutely be the correct thing to do) would cost 100+ million.

[Lord McBuckethead]

Bunch of 1A/2A size schools like that makes no sense.

Buddy, the county takes about 60 minutes to drive across.

[Lord McBuckethead]

nm

[Goldendawg]

You are totally misinformed, 90%+ of the spending was slated directly to classroom spaces and absolutely needed facility upgrades. They haven't passed or even asked for a bond issue in 40 years.
Yes they had some baseball/sports lighting, drop in the bucket and was only going to be considered if everything else bid out as expected.

Look, East Union has temporary trailers out back, and it is going to be worse next year. They are short 4 classrooms now, and will be 6 next year. They were building 10.
West Union is short on both restrooms and classrooms.
Myrtle has K-3 graders walking across a parking lot between class, library, and cafeteria.
Ingolmar has a direct need today for classrooms and extra curricular multipurpose gym space.

That was 15 million of the dollars. They had some paving projects in there, $1,000,000+. And what was left was lighting, which wasn't much.
The lighting was going to be the last thing bid, considering construction cost fluctuate and could have taken all 18.5 by itself.

Sad. Sounds like someone did a poor job informing/convincing the voters and maybe consolidation is also needed.

[Lord McBuckethead]

How much is enough ? Between Tupelo & Lee County schools are spending almost 250 million a year. School taxes are by far the largest part of real property taxes. Schools are an out dated failed model as now executed.

https://tscmaps.com/millage/union-ms/

[Furlow]

Bucket- Look at that same chart for Lee County. School tax is almost same as County & municipal added together!

[Lord McBuckethead]

Exactly. Union County is a dang cheap place to live. I bet their per capita average earnings per household are close to the same.
I am not here to discuss Lee County or Tupelo. They have nice schools, as they should.

[Liverpooldawg]

Their current millage is 44.75 for the school district. New Albany is at 85.
If their average property in the county is assessed at 140k, and the millage increase is 5 points for the bond, that is $700 before homestead.

They seemed to be talking actual bill for the average home, which is usually assed well below actual value, not the millage. A $600/$300 increase on the total bill would be a massive increase here for the average property. We aren't that different than Union County.

[Cooterpoot]

Buddy, the county takes about 60 minutes to drive across.

So, it's still too many small schools.

[Leeshouldveflanked]

It would probably have passed if they had removed the new lights for the ball fields-athletic improvements. Ball Field lights are something that could have been done via fundraising as not everyones kid plays athletics.Also the voters felt like it was not presented well and gave the impression that they were trying to ?sneak it through?.

[Johnson85]

Oh, I agree with all of this. But.... they couldn't pass an 18.5 million bond, a new High School (which would absolutely be the correct thing to do) would cost 100+ million.

A $100M school in a county of 25k people is crazy. I think a big problem is people have to understand that schools in a county with 25k people just aren't going to look like schools in towns with 50k people. They can have a decent school in New Albany and it looks like just about everybody in the county could make it there, depending on where it is, within 30ish minutes, probably 45 at the worst. That school is still not going to look like a miniature college campus. It's not going to have the latest and greatest anything unless a private donor ponies up for something he/she cares about in particular.

The alternative is to have two super bare bones schools spread out some more. But with the way building costs are now, I'm just not sure you can build it basical enough for that to really be economical either.

[Johnson85]

Buddy, the county takes about 60 minutes to drive across.

60 minutes across means most people can get to a central school in 30-40 minutes. That's certainly not ideal, but there are no ideal solutions when you are trying to educate children in a sparsely populated area.

[HoopsDawg]

How many schools does Union county have?

East union, West Union, New Albany, Myrtle, Ingomar. Is that a lot for 25k people?

Man, that is absolutely ridiculous.

[BorneDawg]

My home county consolidated from 4 High Schools to 2 about 30 or so years ago and some people are still angry about it. The 2 still go through 8th grade and students can go to HS of their choice. Yes, "recruiting" for the best athletes goes on from the remaining two HS's.

but as for the health of the county I believe it has improved the schools...... I was in school during the consolidation.... The district i'm in now has 6 county schools in one of the poorest counties in the state!It needs to happen here ASAP!!!

[Pancho]

several coaches , teachers and spouses of Union county schools are totally making fools of themselves on social media as they run down the voters.