Henry County voters approved education SPLOST IV in November 2011 with a 2:1 margin. This week, the board of education officially closed out the program having completed all projects and spent all collections.
Education SPLOST IV provided collections from January 1, 2013 through December 31, 2018. The program had a final budget of $212.8 million.
The headlining project completed in E-SPLOST IV was the construction of Hampton High School. The school opened in 2014 with a construction cost of $38.2 million. The program also funded renovations at fourteen district schools costing nearly $104 million dollars.
Smaller projects included the installation of HVAC in middle school gyms, security upgrades at elementary schools and single-point entry systems at high schools. Thirty new school buses were purchased through the program.
E-SPLOST V & VI
Education SPLOST V, approved by voters in March 2016, recently began its last project. The BOE approved a construction bid in October to construct a distribution center for district use. The project was awarded to Bon Building Services, Inc. of Conyers, GA for $4,507,000.
The primary focus of education SPLOST V has been two-fold: 1) construct the new McDonough High School and McDonough Middle School off Postmaster Drive, finished in 2019; and 2) complete the renovations to every school in the district started under education SPLOST IV. Other projects have included the addition of a second multipurpose gymnasium at each high school and constructing the district’s second performing arts center in Fairview.
Now, the district is in the planning stages of its next SPLOST program — education SPLOST VI. To prepare for the upcoming project list, the district solicited feedback from the general public on school facilities during town hall meetings held over winter 2019–20 and hired an outside firm to complete a classroom utilization study. The project list has not yet been released and a presentation sharing it could come as soon as the December board meeting.
The referendum for voters to consider education SPLOST VI is not yet scheduled. It is expected at some point during 2021.
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