Garnto stresses importance of ESPLOST vote

Laurens County Schools Superintendent Clifford Garnto took advantage of a packed room to talk about this November’s ESPLOST and bond vote.

While the Laurens County School Board of Education was in executive session during a called board meeting last Thursday. He passed out brochures about the ESPLOST while saying he could not tell them how to vote about it.

“But I can tell you what the ESPLOST has done for Laurens County Schools,” Garnto said.

The previous projects have included district-wide technology upgrades including one-to-one technology, building the new East Laurens High School and West Laurens Middle School, purchases of land, school bus purchases, gym floor upgrades, resurfaced/replaced tennis courts and a renovated East Laurens Middle School.

“These were about $82 million worth of projects,” Garnto said. “That’s a lot of money.” 

He pointed out that the one-cent education sales tax has been ongoing for a while, and that an extension of the current sales tax is not an additional tax.

“The current (ESPLOST) expires around September of 2027,” Garnto said. “If another one is voted in, there will be a continuation of that for another five years. Those five years, Laurens County Schools will garner about $60 million.” 

He said the money will go toward paying about $10 million of debt off the new ELHS and WLMS buildings. The rest of the money will go to the following priority list:

– Construction of a new East Laurens Elementary School

– Construction of a new ELMS athletic complex, construction of a WLHS multi-purpose athletic facility

– Renovations and improvements at all schools, including roofs and HVACs

– Upgrading and purchasing technology equipment at all schools and facilities

– Acquiring school buses

– Purchase of safety and security equipment

– Purchase of school instructional, fine arts and physical education equipment

Garnto said their first priority is building a new ELE. The current building, which is in the middle of the campus, was built in 1971, he said.

“We will put it on the other side of the tennis courts, back on the hill kind of between the primary school and the high school,” Garnto said. “We plan to move second grade up to the elementary school. The primary school will be pre-K through first and the elementary school will be second grade through fifth grade.”

He said the building of ELE will cost about $30 million. The next priority is a new athletic complex for ELMS, which will look similar to the athletic complex at WLMS. This will cost about $10 million.

“Part of that will be demo-ing the current elementary school, and that is where the complex will go,” Garnto said. “We will have a nice complex there for our middle school kids. We want to have something nice for our Eastside athletics.” 

The multipurpose athletic facility at WLHS is because of the number of activities they have.

“They have JROTC, dance and cheer,” Garnto said. “The weight room at West Laurens High can hardly accommodate our girls who are interested in weight training.” 

Garnto said they are also looking to sell bonds. He added that when they built ELHS and WLMS, they paid about $200 a square foot for both of them. Currently, construction has gone up to about $300 a square foot.

“There is no cheaper time to build than the present,” Garnto said. “What bonds allow us to do is to go ahead and get the cash up front so that we can start construction projects and go ahead and pay that back with that penny. The most important thing about that penny (SPLOST) is about 60 percent of that is not paid by our residents. Sixty percent is paid for people who come here to shop, stay at our motels or get gas at the interstate. Only 40 percent comes from our residents. If we can get people from outside of Laurens County to pay for our projects, to me, that’s the best way to go.” 

If the ESPLOST does not pass, they still have $10 million in debt to pay for ELHS and WLMS.

“There is only one place to get that from, and that is property tax,” Garnto said. “We don’t want to raise property tax. Our preference is that that penny pays for our big projects.”

Garnto said their goal is to start building ELE next summer.

“If this passes, we’ll start that project,” he said. “If it doesn’t pass then we won’t be building an East Laurens Elementary School because we can’t afford it. This penny will get us $60 million in five years.”