District 2 board pares down referendum

SUMMERVILLE — The cost of a proposed referendum to build new schools around Summerville has shrunk by more than $30 million.

District 2 officials are studying ways to make the proposal more palatable to voters affected by rising prices and declining home values.

The latest proposal, hammered out at a school board workshop this week, is to borrow about $165 million, down from $195 million considered about two weeks ago.

The board cut the cost of the referendum by eliminating a $12.8 million community auditorium planned for somewhere in Summerville and a $3 million public library at Fort Dorchester High School. Those projects may still be included on the ballot, but they would be a separate item and not part of the schools referendum.

The board also cut a $17 million list of renovations. The district would still borrow money to put air-conditioning in middle-school gymnasiums and repair ventilation systems and roofs, but the expense would not be part of the referendum.

On the other hand, the board added $3 million to the referendum to expand vocational programs for students at risk of not graduating.

A key question is what to do about Rollings Middle School of the Arts, an aging building in downtown Summerville. The referendum includes a new middle school. Officials are studying whether to use the old building for Summerville Elementary School or whether to move the district offices there, which would free up the office site for Summerville High School.

Read more in tomorrow's editions of The Post and Courier.