When Durham voters head to the polls in November, they will decide whether the county will issue bonds worth $51.8 million for Durham Public Schools construction projects.
The ballot will contain five different referendums, totaling $74.4 million, each of which would authorize Durham County to issue bonds to fund construction projects. But the largest and most controversial item is the money for the school system.
Those funds would go toward expansion and renovation projects at 11 schools, and the construction of a new elementary school in southern Durham County--projects that supporters say would help relieve school overcrowding caused by the county's burgeoning population. The school system is projecting 17 percent growth in enrollment over the next six years.
"We're starting to see not only normal growth, but very significant growth," said John Burness, the University's senior vice president for public affairs and government relations and the co-chair of a public campaign in favor of the bonds. "We see first-hand that many of these schools are festooned with trailer parks. We simply have to modernize the educational facilities in which people are taught."
MaryAnn Black, chair of the Durham County Board of Commissioners, agreed that the school upgrades are necessary. "If we don't pass the school bond, then the county would have to find [other] ways of financing the repairs on the schools," she said.
But the bonds have also drawn some opposition, particularly from leaders of Durham's black community, who say that the school system is not doing enough for minorities.
"The [National Association for the Advancement of Colored People] has for some time been concerned regarding how African-American male youth were not receiving what we believed was an equal opportunity when it came to education in Durham," said Rev. Curtis Gatewood, president of the Durham branch of the NAACP, which has voiced opposition to the bonds. He said he did not want to provide monetary support for "an attitude that believes it can ignore the voices that represent the best interests of African-American children."
Gatewood said an inordinately high percentage of black male students are suspended, are placed in remedial programs, fail classes or do not graduate from high school within five years. He said the NAACP had recommended ways to deal with these problems--such as bringing in speakers targeted to that audience--but that the school system had ignored them.
Another influential black organization, the Durham Committee on the Affairs of Black People, has not yet taken any official stance on the referendum. Still, Lavonia Allison, the group's chair, said the committee has many concerns about the school system's treatment of minorities.
But others said passing the bonds would be the best way for the school system to make progress.
"I understand and I appreciate the concerns voiced by some members of the African-American community," said Harriette Davis, president of the Durham Association of Educators, which voted earlier this week to support the referendum. "However, I think that as we look at the bond for the whole of Durham, that the people of Durham recognize that to even address the concerns of the committee, we have to start somewhere."
Mozell Robinson, vice chair of the Durham Board of Education, agreed that there were significant disparities between black and white students in the school system. But she said she still supports the bond, pointing out that 61 percent of the students in the 11 schools the money would go to are black.
"I think that there are some legitimate reasons for the [black community] organizations to use the bond as leverage," Robinson said. "Unfortunately, there are many students who will not be served if it's not approved."
Robinson added she would have liked to see more money for the schools on the ballot "so we wouldn't have to be pitting schools against each other that have needs for repairs." The Board of Education has a long-range plan to spend $204 million on school construction and renovation projects over the next seven or eight years.
The other four items on the ballot would allocate $10.2 million to county libraries, $5.8 to the Museum of Life and Science, $5.5 million to build a senior center downtown and $1.1 million for an emergency medical center.
If all five projects pass, the county's annual debt payments, at their highest, would cost the equivalent of about 3 percent of property tax revenues.
Dave Ingram contributed to this story.
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