Worries are beginning to brew as the Donegal School District prepares to attempt what few districts in the state have.

And that is to ask voters to give the district permission to borrow the money it would take to ease overcrowding and replace and repair outdated facilities.

Donegal School Board plans to place a referendum on the ballot sometime in the 2008-09 school year, seeking the go-ahead for a $100 million-plus project that would impact four of the district's five schools and require a large tax increase.

The district will present its ideas at a public meeting at 7 p.m. June 11 in the Donegal Springs gymnasium.

The school board last week gave its initial approval for what's called the design phase of the project. It's the first step of many, school board President Todd Smeigh said.

"Nothing is finalized," Smeigh said.

Two former school board members have voiced their concerns over the proposal. And, there's been at least one letter to the editor criticizing how the project would impact taxpayers.

"We need this for the kids..." for classrooms and extracurricular activities, said Superintendent Shelly Riedel.

But it's not going to come cheaply.

Under a nearly 40-year-old state law, if a school district wants to borrow money for a project above a certain amount, it needs voter approval.

The limit is 225 percent of the average of the last three years' revenue.

Paying the debt on the project would result in a $500 to $600 jump in annual taxes that would be phased in over several years.

Jeffrey Gingrich, who served on the school board from 1993 to 2005, questioned the school board last week about the legitimacy of the enrollment numbers serving as justification for such a project.

"I think when any school district sends out a message what they are going to spend $100 million — or $130 million — and $7 million in athletic fields that people will be concerned about the dollar amount of that expenditure," Gingrich said today.

He added, "I think the district's vision right now is at a 40,000-foot level. I think they are going to better articulate what they are going to do at the June 11 meeting."

Former board member Willis Spangler told the board last week that expecting residents to bear such large tax increases is too much in today's economy.

Some of the comments made to the district are already supportive: "A lot of people know the situation with the schools and they are telling us, 'Just do it, and do it right,'" Riedel said.

At the public meeting, officials will provide the public with information from a feasibility study that shows that the already overcrowded district is not going to stop growing, and that the old buildings are in dire straits.

Already, large numbers of students attend school in modular classrooms. A portion of Maytown Elementary School is about 140 years old, and the other part is 80 years old.

The soccer team practices in the front yard of Donegal High School, where balls tend to roll onto Anderson Ferry Road.

The feasibility study was the work of a 25-member committee representing the public, business and municipal sectors of the school district, which serves Marietta and Mount Joy boroughs and East Donegal Township.

The committee produced the report on the state of Donegal's infrastructure and offered two options to the district costing between $94 million and $107 million.

Riedel said the district will present the referendum once plans have been "fine tuned."

"We want to make sure the design phase is well done," she said. The district needs to make sure the numbers are exact because once out, the district can't exceed them.

In the meantime, district officials know they need to convince residents.

Since the early 1970s, only two other school districts in the state have attempted voter referendums for construction projects, said David Davare, director of research services with the Pennsylvania School Boards Association.

Both districts (in 2005 and 2006) won.


Staff writer Robyn Meadows can be reached at rmeadows@LNPnews.com or 481-6025.