Besides the addition of classrooms and schools to address overcrowding concerns, the bond money would go towards updating technology. That’s according to Deanne Meadows, Assistant Superintendent for Brunswick County Schools:
"You have to continue to upgrade and update your technology resources. We are on a seven-year rotation right now. It really should be five years that we take a computer and we trade it out for an upgrade."
With more schools and classrooms comes the need for more teachers. And more teachers means higher operating costs. But Deanne Meadows says she doesn’t think that will lead to a tax increase for the county:
"We have been very fortunate in Brunswick County in that the amount of economic growth that’s happening, as you mentioned earlier, has helped us to be able to maintain that percentage agreement that we have with the commissioners. So we have been able to, the last two years, get a little bit of an increase in our operating expenses."
Brunswick County Schools estimates the bond-funded projects would take eight to ten years to reach completion. For a $200,000 home, the school bond would result in a tax increase of about $76 a year.