If Bulloch County voters in the current election rejected the proposed sixth five-year installment of the Education Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax, the resulting uncertainty would halt plans for construction of a new 2,000-student Southeast Bulloch High School to begin in July 2026.

The need for certainty in financing the added new school is the main reason the "E-SPLOST 6" referendum is on the ballot now, almost three years before the current fifth E-SPLOST is set to expire on Sept. 30, 2028, Superintendent of Schools Charles Wilson said in an interview Monday.

If voters approve, this will be a continuation of that same 1% tax from Oct. 1, 2028 until Sept. 30, 2033. The new SEB High School, which isn't simply a replacement but an added school — with the current high school to become Southeast Bulloch Middle School and the current middle school an "upper elementary" for fourth and fifth grades — is the Bulloch County Board of Education's top priority for the tax, Wilson affirmed.

If the tax were rejected in the referendum concluding next Tuesday, Nov. 4, the board could still bring another referendum before the current tax expired. But according to Wilson, allowing for that possibility has never been a reason for the early ask.

"Our reason for coming out early on this has been to be able to know whether we can move forward," Wilson said. "We have been in the design phase of Southeast Bulloch High School. We are finalizing that. Our plans have been to try to start construction in July of 2026. Now, if we don't know that we have the revenue source to tag onto E-SPLOST 5, we can't start."

2 E-SPLOSTs, 1 school

Paying for that added school was already a top purpose in the current fifth, five-year E-SPLOST, which was approved by 71.8% of voters in a November 2022 referendum. But portions of the revenue have gone for other authorized projects — including annual purchases such as of school buses and computers — and that installment of the tax carries a $110 million revenue cap, an amount it's not expected to reach by the expiration date.

Meanwhile, the estimated total cost to build, furnish and equip the new SEB High School has risen to roughly $165 million. This is after Wilson and the board reduced the planned capacity from the 2,500 students once discussed to 2,000 students, still "expandable to 3,000." Even this week, school system representatives were working with the architect in efforts to reduce the square footage, and therefore the cost, while maintaining those capacity goals.

The E-SPLOST 6 proposal now before voters carries a revenue limit of $175 million and would authorize bonds or  other debt  up to $120 million to fund construction and be repaid from the tax. Trying to proceed with the school construction without this referendum passing would be like "having half a loan to build your house" in that it "wouldn't be a good idea to start not knowing whether you can finish," Wilson said.

Other projects

In addition to the new Southeast Bulloch High School, the Board of Education approved a list of 11 other authorized projects and purchasing categories for E-SPLOST 6. Some of the mentioned construction projects, such as an added gymnasium for Portal Middle High School, which currently has one gym for both its middle school and high school, and a new Statesboro High School "multipurpose room" — providing practice space for sports such as wrestling and cheerleading — are not things Wilson expects to see be built with the 2028-2033 funding unless the new SEB High and other priorities somehow cost less than predicted.

The extensive list is meant to give school officials "more room" for a change of plans if something unexpected like that happens.

"And what  I mean by that is, if you don't  list something and, say, we bid out the Southeast Bulloch High School project and the price has just come down tremendously — let's just use that for an example — then all of a sudden we find ourselves going, 'Wow, we have more (money left) than we knew we would have,'" Wilson said. "If you don't list those other projects, you can't do them."

General-fund relief

But other than the added new school, the other real priorities that proposed E-SPLOST 6 would be fairly certain to fund are "capital expenditures" of the routine, often annual kind he and the board previously shifted out of the general fund budget to be paid for with E-SPLOST 5. These include school bus purchases, technology infrastructure, books and other instructional materials and software, school furnishings and equipment.

"Those are all the things that we have moved out of the general fund to take pressure off of the general fund, which means that it takes pressure off of the property tax need," Wilson said. "So those two big issues are the priority."

A third priority will be the purchase of "mobile units," he confirmed, portable classroom buildings needed until the new school is built and other schools adapted to provide more space in permanent classrooms. Also related, minor renovations to the current Southeast Bulloch High so it can serve as the middle school and, in turn, to the current middle school would be priority renovation projects.

"But the likelihood is that Southeast Bulloch High School, and all that's going to be involved with building and equipping that school, to start it, and offsetting that pressure on the general fund with these capital expenditure type items being paid for out of E-SPLOST resources, that's probably going to be the lion's share of what we're able to focus on now," Wilson said.

With early voting now in its third and final week — 2,002 Bulloch County residents had voted early in-person and another 52 by paper absentee ballots as of Monday evening, Oct. 27 — Wilson was asked if he is confident of the E-SPLOST's passage.

"I'll say this, this community sees the common-sense logic behind the E-SPLOST," he said. "The community has always been overwhelmingly supportive of providing the facilities for our schools because people know we have to have a place to put our students."

He appreciates that but has also "never been one to take anything for granted," he added, and said that "there seems to be a negative voice to a lot of things right now." That included, when the board voted a 3-mill hike in the property tax rate this summer, one or two citizens threatening opposition to the sales tax in response. 

So, if that view prevailed "then that's the community's voice …," Wilson said.

"I hope that's not the case, but if that is the case, then that's just something we'll have to work through as a community," he said.

Monday's phone interview about the E-SPLOST was conducted and this story nearly completed before a press release was received late Tuesday afternoon announcing that Wilson will retire as superintendent March 31.