Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the State Legislation topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Board approves edited letter to legislators backing a capital referendum option along with governor's Public School Bond Act language
Summary
The board approved a draft letter to state legislators supporting the governor's Public School Bond Act of 2025 while adding language requesting that, if legislators do not back that plan, they include a capital referendum of their own design in the final house or senate budget; approval was unanimous.
The Catawba County Board of Education unanimously approved a draft letter to the county’s state legislators on June 9 that expresses support for the governor’s Public School Bond Act of 2025 and asks legislators, if they cannot back that plan, to include a capital referendum of their own design in the final house or senate budget.
Dr. Matt Stover presented a draft the board could send to local representatives. He said staff used publicly available documents about the governor’s initiative and that he had used ChatGPT to help draft the language presented to the board. "I put a lot of thoughts into chat GPT, and then you then you got that professional letter in front of you," Stover said during the presentation.
Board members debated whether to reference only the governor’s proposal or to also request that legislators include a capital referendum in their budgets if they decline the governor's plan. Dr. Barnett and other board members said they preferred language that would ask legislators to include a capital referendum or earmark specific capital requests if they could not support the governor’s bond proposal. One board member suggested removing the word "bond referendum" entirely and instead focusing on capital requests the legislature could write for specific counties; others preferred keeping a referendum option.
After discussion, a board member moved to approve the draft with edits to request "possible capital referendum designed by the house or senate" be included as an option; the motion directed Dr. Stover to make the changes and authorized staff to send the letter to legislators this week. Board members clarified they wanted the letter to go out promptly; Dr. Stover said he could make the edits and print a version for signatures before the meeting ended.
The motion passed unanimously. The board did not specify list of legislators to receive the letter in the meeting record, and the final text of the amended letter was not entered into the public minutes during the meeting.
