Board to move forward with middle school planning

The Alleghany County Board of Education recently learned with the general assembly passing legislation giving counties the option of putting a .4 percent land transfer tax or a .25 cent local sales tax up for a referendum, the reality of a middle school could be realized sooner than earlier anticipated. The matter was discussed during an Aug. 14 meeting.

Superintendent Jeff Cox told the board members, "Now that there's some funding available through the state...our interest may be going back toward a realistic possibility of going ahead with this middle school now, not five years from now."

However, school renovations have run into a funding problem. Alleghany and other counties that were allocated QZAB (Qualified Zone Academy Bond) funding are having trouble finding a bank willing to loan the funds, thus stalling progress of school-related projects.

"So far, we haven't had any luck with that, so I'm not sure how to proceed with that until we can find a bank that's willing to do the loan," Cox said. "I did call the state folks who deal with this and asked them about what would be involved if we were to want to change any of the projects. That might change what our priorities are with this QZAB program."

The North Carolina General Assembly passed legislation at the end of the last session that gives counties the option of putting a .4 percent land transfer tax, or a .25 cent local sales tax up for a referendum.

 

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