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Dorchester School District 4 outlines $120 million-plus needs and urges council to preserve earlier revenue split in penny sales tax plan
Summary
A Dorchester School District 4 representative told county council the district needs major capital work — two new Ridgeville schools, a Saint George replacement and a Woodland High addition — and urged the council to honor a previously discussed split of sales-tax revenue; staff emphasized tradeoffs of bonding early versus preserving future receipts.
Representatives for Dorchester School District 4 presented to county council on July 6 to make the case for using a proposed penny sales tax to pay for school construction and upgrades.
The presenter said the district faces urgent capacity and age-related issues: the average school building age is about 50 years, several elementary buildings date to the 1950s and Clay Hill Elementary is operating at design capacity with no room for additional pre-K classrooms. Ridgeville alone is forecasted to add roughly 5,000 homes, and the district said it needs two new schools there, a replacement for Williams Memorial in Saint George and an addition to Woodland High School to move specialized programs out of core instructional space.
The district estimated roughly $120 million for top projects and described a prior inter-district agreement that projected approximately $206 million in revenue for Dorchester 4 under an earlier 70/30 split with Dorchester 2 over 15 years. The presenter cautioned that bonding against receipts to start construction early reduces the long-term available funds because of lost interest and noted that a 10% tax reduction in the enacted bill further reduces proceeds available for projects.
Council members asked for technical details and a workshop; one council member requested subject-matter experts be included before any final decision. County attorney and staff later moved to defer an executive-session discussion on the referendum items to the July 20 meeting to allow time for additional data and a proposed workshop with both school districts and municipal leaders.
The district asked council to consider maintaining the original inter-district split and to allow public outreach and community meetings between now and November. No binding county action on the referendum was taken at the July 6 meeting; council formally deferred additional executive-session discussion to July 20.
