One School System 2

I have reported on combining the Loudon County and Lenoir City school systems many times over the years, Now that Dan Bell, owner of The Daily Edition, is actively working on a petition to ask the city council to add the question to the November Ballot, we need to look at the real details and what the costs would be to combine.

To begin with, it would require a vote of Lenoir City residents to change the city charter to eliminate the school system. Whether that would ever happen is an unknown. If the voters did vote to eliminate the city school system, their system would be absorbed by the county school system. Currently, the county system has 10 schools and the city has 3.

Sure, there would be immediate cost savings by the elimination of most of the city schools central office staff. Just elimination of the city schools director position would save $170,500.00. But on the flipside, all teacher salaries would have to be equalized to be commensurate with the higher paid district salaries. In this case, the city system does pay higher salaries. Equalizing all salaries could cost several million dollars, recurring. The city school system has about $8,500,000.00 in debt. The county school system would have to absorb that debt. Approximately, three million in revenues would be lost in city sales tax revenues that currently go to the city school system. That sales tax revenue would revert back to city government.

City property owners would see an immediate 38 cent property tax increase. This is due to the fact that Lenoir City property owners currently do not pay the county school debt service since the city has a separate school system. And just guessing, based on potential increase costs associated with combining the systems, it would probably require an additional five to ten cent property tax increase for every property owner to cover the salary equalization, debt and other associated costs involved in combining.

Worst of all, if the two systems were combined tomorrow, the over crowding issues would still exist in both systems. The building program would still be needed.

So what seems to be a simple solution to a problem isn't nearly as simple as it seems and would be very expensive to accomplish.

Someday, combining the school systems may very well happen. But just know, if/when they do, it will be very expensive.

Be careful what you ask for.

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7/22/24