Lexington 2 seeks school overhaul

“Meet me at the bubble” is a catchphrase with dual meaning in Lexington 2 schools.

For students at Brookland-Cayce High School, a 6-inch-high bulge stretching 10 feet in a hallway was a landmark until it was ripped out a few days ago as a precaution against tripping.

For school officials, it symbolizes the need for a $225 million package of improvements that await approval at the Nov. 4 ballot.

The major update sought for 16 schools mostly built in the 1950s and 1960s – among the Midlands’ oldest public education facilities – is overdue, supporters of the plan say.

“This is part of giving our kids the opportunity to succeed,” said Kevin Key, one leader of the campaign for the improvements. “We’re investing in our kids.”

It’s the first set of improvements that Lexington 2 has sought since 2002. Three of the other four school districts in Lexington County have added and upgraded facilities since then.

Schools are outdated in many ways, supporters of the package say:

No organized opposition to the plan has surfaced even though it means an increase in property taxes.

“They have needs – I’ll admit that,” said Ned Tolar of West Columbia, a Republican running for Lexington County Council in the area on an anti-tax theme.

Tolar is focusing instead on trying to defeat a proposed penny-on-the-dollar sales tax for new roads and other projects across the county.

That tax plan will share the ballot with the school improvements package.

If approved at the polls, the plan for new classrooms and renovations could be accomplished in five years, Lexington 2 officials say.

Supporters worry the tax hike it will produce is unpalatable for some residents.

The plan would add about $120 a year to the property tax bill of a home assessed at $100,000 after a sales tax credit for education is applied, County Auditor Chris Harmon estimates.

There’s also concern that the combination of the property tax hike, county tax proposal and a 2 percent tax on dining in restaurants, takeout meals and some snacks that started in Cayce on Oct. 1 will seem too much at once.

Lexington 2 is home to 8,500 students in classrooms in Cayce, Pine Ridge, South Congaree, Springdale, West Columbia and nearby areas.

The package of improvements on the ballot is divided this way:

“The need is so great, it warrants the whole package,” said the Rev. Carroll McGee, a local pastor.

The bubble at Brookland-Cayce was the largest of a series of bulges in a terrazzo tile floor in the center of school that principal Gregg Morton calls “a thoroughfare” during class changes.

“It’s going to be a growing problem” that will require new flooring soon, he said.

More age-related problems are starting to appear at schools, officials say.

Students at Taylor Elementary recently were taken to nearby Davis Early Childhood Center for bathroom use one day when a plumbing break couldn’t be repaired quickly because terra cotta pipes are no longer available, officials said.

“The older these buildings get, the more that stuff is going to happen,” said Jill Libby, a parent who helped develop the package appearing on the ballot. “Band-Aid fixes no longer make sense.”

This story was originally published October 12, 2014 at 6:44 PM.