What will it cost to upgrade York County schools?

It's August 6. Consultant studying condition of buildings as York asks voters to approve sales tax increase. Democrats and Republicans gear up for First District Congressional seat.

Queens Lake Middle, left, and Tabb High School part of $117 million renovation projects. (York schools pictures)

By Rebecca Fuchs

York County will be asking voters in a November referendum if they want to raise the sales tax by up to a penny to help renovate the county’s aging schools. Now school officials are working on figuring out how big the tab could be.

York School Superintendent James Carroll told the board of supervisors at their workshop Tuesday that a facilities study, due by fall, will help determine when replacing aging school buildings becomes more cost-effective than major renovations.

Carroll said school officials aren’t recommending widespread replacement of its aging schools. York’s 18 schools are an average of 55 years old, and three of them are 72 years old, Carroll has said.

“We can’t replace them all, nor would I make that recommendation,” Carroll said. “But I think we just have to start thinking about it.”

Carroll explained that the school division’s approach to construction has been guided for more than three decades by a 1993 agreement between the school board and the board of supervisors that emphasizes expanding existing schools, using portable classrooms and redistricting students before constructing new facilities. Only one school has been built since the agreement was signed.

The schools’ chief financial officer, Bill Bowen, told supervisors the division’s current six-year capital improvement plan includes about $117 million in projects, including work at Tabb High School, Queens Lake Middle School and Waller Mill Elementary School. About $100 million would be financed through county-backed bonds.

School projects will account for 41% of all county capital spending over the next six years, County Administrator Mark Bellamy has said. He has said an extra penny in sales tax could generate $12 million a year, the equivalent of 9 cents in additional real estate taxes. But unlike real estate, tourists pay 25-30% of sales taxes, so they would be helping pay for the schools, Bellamy said.

Bowen said Queens Lake is already at capacity and needs additional classroom and common space, while Waller Mill is the elementary school most vulnerable to future enrollment growth. He estimated a new elementary school could cost $40 million to $50 million, a middle school $60 million to $100 million and a high school more than $100 million, depending in part on land costs.