For the LOVE of Real Estate with That SC Real Estate Chick
Steering Educational Growth: Dr. Robbins on Shaping DD2's Future
Mar 12, 2024Season 2Episode 5
Roni Haskell
Join the conversation with Dr. Robbins, Superintendent of Dorchester County School District 2, who brings a wealth of knowledge from healthcare to education right to our discussion table. With a heartfelt connection as a father and resident, Shane provides rare insights into the evolving landscape of our local schools, revealing how the community's heritage and development intersect with the pressing demands of educational growth. His journey, paved with unwavering family support, underscores the personal dedication he has for the district and its future.
This episode peels back the layers on the strategic decisions and creative solutions at the heart of expanding the district's capacity to cater to the burgeoning number of families making our area their home. We dissect the implications of a pivotal three-year study and the school board's multifaceted approach to funding new facilities, including the pursuit of a referendum that could pave the way for substantial constructions without burdening taxpayers. Dr. Robbins candidly navigates through the financial intricacies, explaining why popular mechanisms like impact fees and sales taxes fall short for our unique community needs, ensuring listeners come away with a robust understanding of our schools' path forward.
Thank you for listening! Please contact me if I can ever be of service:
Join the conversation with Dr. Robbins, Superintendent of Dorchester County School District 2, who brings a wealth of knowledge from healthcare to education right to our discussion table. With a heartfelt connection as a father and resident, Shane provides rare insights into the evolving landscape of our local schools, revealing how the community's heritage and development intersect with the pressing demands of educational growth. His journey, paved with unwavering family support, underscores the personal dedication he has for the district and its future.
This episode peels back the layers on the strategic decisions and creative solutions at the heart of expanding the district's capacity to cater to the burgeoning number of families making our area their home. We dissect the implications of a pivotal three-year study and the school board's multifaceted approach to funding new facilities, including the pursuit of a referendum that could pave the way for substantial constructions without burdening taxpayers. Dr. Robbins candidly navigates through the financial intricacies, explaining why popular mechanisms like impact fees and sales taxes fall short for our unique community needs, ensuring listeners come away with a robust understanding of our schools' path forward.
Thank you for listening! Please contact me if I can ever be of service:
He is the Dorchester County School District 2 Superintendent and he is sharing with us the need for the referendum. Dr Robbins, thanks for coming on today.
Speaker 2:
My pleasure. Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1:
You bet so kind of want to introduce you, let the community get to know your role here in the Dorchester County area. But you're a resident yes, ma'am Of Dorchester County. You're a dad to two boys.
Speaker 2:
I am. I have two grown boys. My oldest son's a surveyor here in the Low Country and my youngest son is a senior at the College of Charleston.
Speaker 1:
All right, and you long time educator? Yeah, tell us about your journey.
Speaker 2:
So I've been an educator for almost 30 years. I started out my career in healthcare and then I transitioned into teaching. I've been a building administrator teacher and I've been a superintendent for 16 years now.
Speaker 1:
Okay, but over 30 years in the school district of some regard right Teaching principal and then segwayed into superintendent.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, I was a middle school teacher, high school teacher, athletic trainer, high school principal and then superintendent.
Speaker 1:
Talk about wearing many different hats, and so now your staff you know everybody underneath you knows that you've actually walked in these footsteps and you've given you know, I would imagine a pretty good feel for what the needs are in different components of the schools.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, I think it's important for people to know you've done what they've done. So the challenges that they have, you see them as very real and you can be compassionate about it and try to provide them with solutions and opportunities.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, so tell us about more, a little bit about your family, your boys and you're married.
Speaker 2:
Yes, yeah, so actually that's my better half. So I've moved around a little bit as my career has grown and progressed, and I wouldn't be where I am today if it wasn't for her. She's the reason I've been able to do what I do. We've been married for over 25 years and she works in the healthcare industry, but she is a remote worker, so it's made a little easier for us to move. But we have two boys.
Speaker 2:
Our oldest son, bryce, graduated from Coastal Carolina with a degree in adolescent psychology and, lo and behold, he's a surveyor but loves it. He works here in the low country for an engineering firm, and so he's nearby. My youngest son is a finance major accounting major at the College of Charleston. He's a senior this year, and so we're very blessed to have them here in the area with us. But I also add a couple extra grown kids to that resume, and that's my parents. When I moved to South Carolina, my parents moved with me, and so they moved to Somerville when I took the job at Dorchester County. So my whole family is here in the low country, and that makes things really nice for us.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, keeping it all local. And so you've come to grow, to love this community in the short time that you've been here. So you moved into the ponds and you were telling me a story the other day. Retell it to our community, because you were talking about the growth and there was a holiday and, on the other, side of that holiday you had extra kids that stood on the corner, so tell us about that story.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, I'm not always consistent, but I like to run in the morning and the ponds I'm in I think they call it phase seven. It was a new build and so before Christmas, you know when I get them run, you know I'd finish around 6.30 in the morning, there'd be nothing. And then after Christmas break I came back from my run and I saw about 25 kids across from my house waiting on a bus, and those were kids that weren't there before Christmas break, because there are people that were moving in as their houses were completed during the holidays, and we're seeing that all across our community, but even in my neighborhood that's really mostly built out. There's been over 150 homes that were built in the last 18 months, and so they all have school-aged children and they love the community and they're moving here from out of state. You know a lot of them.
Speaker 1:
Well, you migrated here. I migrated here back 24 years ago, moved here into Charleston to work. But when I really started looking at where am I going to plan a family, you know, strengthen the roots of community and where do I want to be raising my children, I chose Somerville. And a lot of other families feel the same way. We have a big migration to our area and I'm on the forefront of a lot of these conversations. Just this year we've had 12 families that have signed buyers agency with my team from other parts of the country and we get these referrals, you know, referrals in from other real estate professionals. But the families are seeking a good quality of life, they're seeking good schools to put their children in, they're seeking a good opportunity for their work environment. So they're just constantly coming in and we're going to continue to see that. You know, as far as Charleston goes, they know that we want to move to Charleston. But when they really start looking at community base and what's important in schools, they oftentimes land in Somerville, absolutely.
Speaker 1:
It is putting a lot of pressure on our school district.
Speaker 2:
It is. You know, there are a lot of times that we always hear when new students are enrolling and from out of state they do their research. And Dorchester School, district 2, in this area has a wonderful reputation. We're one of the best, if not the best, school district in the low country and I'll stand behind that any day, and so that does put a little pressure on us. But you know, if you also look at the community itself and the things that they're doing with the parks development, with the downtown Somerville, trying to maintain, you know, that historic image and then bring people to the downtown area to enjoy it, you know I use the third Thursday as an example and the farmers market, and those are all things that are wonderful. That you know. My wife and I said you know, when I'm done, when I retire, is this a place that we want to live and my parents living here? There's just so many things for people to do and it doesn't matter your age young, middle-aged, old-aged there's plenty to do in the community. There really is.
Speaker 1:
And so it's not just families, it's people retire here, or even an active retirement where they're looking at a second career and something different than what they've been doing. But you're right, there's almost between the Flower Town Festival Dream does not only the third Thursday, but just an amazing job of building out almost more activities than we can even do.
Speaker 2:
You know, and so it's something for everybody.
Speaker 1:
The Italian Festival. We were just meeting with some of the leaders of these last night you and I and so it's just instrumental, but the thread is that people love Somerville. It's got a lot of history, a lot of richness, but we've got to do some things to maintain the quality of life, and that's really what we're here to talk about today is what are the needs for the district in order to you know, as we present this growth, you know, and the pressure that it's having on the schools? What is that going to look like? I know that there's been a three year plan and that three year plan has been Coming to a close and now it's time to take some action. So tell us about what that vision is and why we need it.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, you know. So every day we look at the capacity of our schools with all the new families moving in, and what we don't want to do is allow the increased enrollment in certain buildings to degrade the quality of education that we're providing. Doesn't mean that our teachers are doing any lesser the quality is any different. It just means when you have so many students in one classroom it makes it very difficult for them. And so we're looking.
Speaker 2:
We spent the last three years we did a demographic study to look at what our enrollment projections look like. We did a master facility study To see what type of capital projects work we need to do with our current facilities we have, and then do we need to construct new facilities. So that's where we are at the end of this three-year. You know, you know kind of work that we've done To create a plan. I provided the board with a couple different options, a course of action, analysis Matrix for them to make some decisions, for us to move forward so that we can maintain the quality of things that we do in DD2.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, so thankfully we've got a great school board in place, and so they are instrumental with making the best decision with the information that you've given to them. When we look at moving forward with that, there's a couple of different avenues that Could happen the referendum, and I'm gonna let you talk on that a bit, but that's the avenue that has been selected to move forward right. And so we've got a short. How many you know?
Speaker 2:
75 days 75 days and counting by the time. People watch this right.
Speaker 1:
Very short amount of time to be instrumental, so tell us about why a referendum was the avenue chosen right.
Speaker 2:
So in you know, we do have revenue that we receive to maintain structures in different formats. The unfortunate thing about it is that will only allow you to maintain daily you know, yearly maintenance activities with those facilities. It doesn't allow you to construct a new facility if you have major growth in a community. For us, working with our planning commissions, we, we know now that we have over 14,000 homes that are on the books to be built in the next 10 years and you're you know, probably more aware than most about that and then another 3,000 homes that are Potential developments as well, and so those all generate some number, some quantity, number of school-aged children.
Speaker 2:
And so if you don't plan and be and you're not proactive about it, then you know it becomes completely crisis mode for us, and so the only way we can build a structure, because of the cost of Building a facility like that, is through the referendum route, and that's the reason why, but I also will share that you know.
Speaker 2:
First of all, I want to say this because you mentioned the board. The one thing that makes our board good is, if you ask them what their primary mission is, they're gonna tell you it's kids, and that's why we're in this business. And so, no, we don't want to be contractors and constructors and do all those things, but we know we have to do that to provide quality education to our kids. But, with that being said, we have more than one pot that we're working out of. We do have some money that we can use to add on additions to buildings. Do some of those temporary structures like learning cottages which I don't have a problem saying it's a fancy name for a trailer, you know so that we have capacity in a building. But to do the major lift we have to go the referendum route so that we can acquire more money up front to actually contract with a contractor to build a building.
Speaker 1:
So, as I understand it, it's a $200 million referendum. How is that going to be impactful? This referendum, how is it going to affect the average homeowner resident here in Dorchester County?
Speaker 2:
Yeah, and that's the really nice thing. We're probably. I did a little research. I thought maybe we're number two. I think we're number three. Beuford County and Spartanburg both have used the same concept. They're growing communities, but we haven't had a referendum in our school district for 12 years. The last referendum was 2012. So over the course of that time, we've been able to pay down debt. There was a point in time where interest rates were really good, and so we refinanced our bonds, which allowed us to pay that down a little quicker. And what that does is it creates capacity for you to acquire new debt and not change the tax rate, the millage rate, and so that's where we are. This referendum is going to be one of the only that I've seen in the state that you're able to go out and ask the taxpayer to prove it, and it's not going to change their tax rate or their millage rate on the bottom line.
Speaker 1:
That's right and that's impactful, because we do not want to increase taxes. People will still be paying what they've been paying, but we're just acquiring more debt. So for those that may not know what a referendum is, it's you're taking a loan out, basically right, and then, over time put it in context of going and buying a house, leveraging yourself by taking out a mortgage and then, over time, you're paying that off. Same concept you're taking a referendum, a bond, and you're just paying it back over time. We don't have the. You know some people. They don't like the idea of debt. They don't want the county in debt to anybody. However, we don't have time to waste in or the luxury of saying, well, let's raise all these funds and then build. We don't have that time.
Speaker 2:
No, you know some people have floated the ideas of impact fees, which isn't on the books right now for us, a penny sales tax, which isn't doable for us. There would have to be some legislative changes. But even those two concepts, if and when they would ever pass, then they have to. Those monies have to accrue to you, get to a level where you could actually build, and I've talked to our local finance people and they've told me what a penny sales tax would potentially generate. You know it would take us six to seven years, if it was successful, to generate that revenue.
Speaker 1:
And in six to seven years that's just how much further behind we are in terms of our enrollment trends in this community and, as you were talking about yesterday when we were speaking, it was you can make adjustments on a high school level right, Because of scheduling and early in and early out kind of situations, but when we're talking about elementary and middle school, you can only put so many children into a classroom and if we're at capacity already today and we know that that area has the 14 to 17,000 extra homes that are going to be built into these areas that's an emergent need for building on wings to existing buildings and then also exercising the Used to build completely new buildings as well right.
Speaker 2:
You know, even to add a wing on takes us 12 to 18 months and and I'll be very specific in a couple areas. You know, as summerville has become a destination for families, there are areas in Dorchester County that just hadn't been developed, and that's the Ashley River area. So as you get further and further away from Charleston and outside of summerville, it's still our school district, but there are thousands and thousands of homes being built. The. The one addition right now that's going up really rapidly feed straight into beach ill elementary school, and so there is just nothing else we can really do. And you know it's really interesting as I was researching all this. The other significant challenge we have is the Ashley River, because there's no really Roadway to go across the river. As you get down towards north Charleston you have to drive all the way up to hit a road to come back down if we were to try to bust those kids to different schools. So it just creates a lot of logistical struggles based on the geography of our community as well.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, and just to revisit, this has been a three-year plan. Y'all have done a lot of research and To the specific schools where we can just add on the wings or where a new school needs to be planted. So this is not a quick, haphazard decision to run. You know this referendum and Time is of the essence, as I understand it.
Speaker 2:
It is, and you know. So kudos to the board and mr Pi. They started a master facility study shortly after COVID and then, of course you know, he retired. When I came I Completed the study with the contractor we were working with and what the study did was looked at every single building and what do they need in terms of maintenance and upgrades and expansions.
Speaker 2:
And then what we did is a demographic study and we brought in a professional demographer that looked at the growth in the community To give us enrollment forecasts, and we put those two things together and said, okay, what's our need? And and so we have worked really for three plus years on this to have a plan to move forward. You know, when you bring the plan forward, you don't want to bring a plan that's not complete to people. So we have a master facility project list that includes where the new elementary school Locations would be constructed, and you'll see that they're in areas that are really right now bursting at the seams and are only Going to continue to grow here in the near future. So a lot of thoughts been put into this.
Speaker 1:
So what we want to ask the community is to vote yes.
Speaker 2:
Tell us about when that voting is going to take place well and I'm always very cautious of it because the boards made the decision to move forward with a referendum and At this point in the game, you know, I it's not my role To tell people how to vote. I'm just trying to educate them on why we're doing what we're doing and how we're trying to accomplish it and be the most fiscally responsible as possible, you know, and so hopefully they see the wisdom in why we're asking them to consider a referendum and why it's such a needed thing in our community right now, because, again, at the end of the day, we want to maintain that high quality of education that we provide our students so the community will be able to have the opportunity to voice their vote, and that date is going to be when.
Speaker 1:
May 14, may 14th, the community can voice their their vote.
Speaker 2:
If this does not pass this year, my understanding is that it has to wait a whole year before it passes, and so time is of the essence, and making a decision and getting this it is and you know, if I could add in there too, so for us to build two new schools, it takes 36 months, and so you're looking at three more years of enrollment growth Before we could even step foot into a new facility. Now, because we did a little bit of planning prior to, we do think that a new facility could be constructed and we could enter it in the fall of 2026 versus 2027, but each, you know, each month you wait, you know pushes that you know can down the road a little further and and the Construction costs are going up as well, and so we think this is the most economical approach. And, again, you're looking at three years for some of these things to be completed.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, and again, there's no tax increase. It's just a continuation of what people have been paying and new debt accrued and the, the funds will continue to pay down that debt right.
Speaker 1:
Um. So I think that as a community member, I'm excited about this, this. I know the need is there. I'm having the conversations with families that are moving in and I understand what the quality of life. I'm a mom of children who are in the in the Dorchester County schools, and so I know that I want the best for my children and I want the best for these families that I'm assisting and I'm selling this community to them. Right? They're asking me what my opinion is about the schools and the district and the quality of education, and it's not. The quality is not changing, but if we're gonna keep adding kids to it, we've got to have a place to put them, and that's really what we're going after.
Speaker 2:
So yeah, and I would tell people in the community first of all, no school board, no superintendent wants to rezone or run a referendum. We just don't wanna do it. We wanna provide great academic and educational opportunities, but the community is causing this. They're causing it because it's a great place to live All these organizations that you've already mentioned. They're providing opportunities for families that they can't find somewhere else, and so it's almost it's a double-edged sword there. Because it's a great thing, it's attracting many, many people, and so we just we have to have a plan to be able to respond, to maintain that level of quality that we experience every day.
Speaker 1:
Wow, I'm looking forward to seeing what happens in May and really to the future of our community. So thank you so much, Dr Robbins, for being here today to tell us about what this referendum is gonna mean for each one of our families.
Speaker 2:
Yes, ma'am, thank you so much You're welcome.
Speaker 1:
Oh, thanks for joining us. I'll see you next time.