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JACKSON – Officials with Northampton County Schools say that a financial investment of $4.1 million from the county could help them move forward with the new high school construction project.

But they emphasized during their presentation at the Northampton County Board of Commissioners meeting on Jan. 6 that this was simply one option to consider.

After a brief overview by Northampton Schools Superintendent Dr. Rosa Atkins, Phil Matthews stepped up to the podium to present the financial options to the commissioners.

The district currently has $62 million in grant funding from the state’s Needs-Based Public School Capital Fund. Those funds come from lottery proceeds and do not require a county match to be used.

The plan is to construct a new centrally-located high school just outside the Jackson town limits. But due to rising costs from inflation, the bids they received for construction were $10.9 million over the district’s budget.

Matthews explained that they were able to reduce the scope of the project, but they still remained $6,481,622 over budget after that. To address the funding deficit, Matthews offered up two different options for the commissioners to consider. But both options included contributing sales tax reimbursement funds to the project.

The county and school district previously entered into an agreement where the county would receive a reimbursement of sales tax from the construction project, such as from the purchase of building materials. That reimbursement is estimated to total $1.2 million. But NC Department of Public Instruction recently said that those reimbursement funds must be returned to the local school district.

Matthews explained that if the county contributed those sales tax reimbursement funds to the construction project, then the deficit would drop to $5.2 million.

After that, the first option would be for the county to contribute $4,198,848 to the project to cover the costs for football/track facilities ($3,921,290), Culinary Arts kitchen equipment ($248,263), and window treatment ($29,295). Additionally, they would ask for the county to waive the permitting and inspection fees for the construction project.

Matthews noted, however, that the district is still pursuing the possibility of New Markets Tax Credits (NMTC), which is a program created by the federal government where wealthy investors are encouraged to invest in low-income areas to receive tax credits in return. If the district does receive NMTC funding, they would be able to reduce or even eliminate the need for county funding.

“It’s still looking promising. We have faith. We’re fairly confident,” Matthews said about the NMTC funds. “But hope is not a strategy, so we can’t count on it until we have it.”

Lastly, Matthews presented the second option, which would be to reduce the high school by approximately 10,000 sq. ft. That would eliminate space for several Career & Technical Education (CTE) classes, which would mean students would continue to have to commute to the current site in Creeksville for those courses. He also noted that changing the design could potentially delay the construction schedule if they have to rebid the project.

After the presentation, Ed Martin, chairman of the board of commissioners, asked how long they had until the bids expired. Matthews answered early February.

Martin also asked if they had confirmation from NCDPI about the sales tax reimbursement situation.

Matthews said they had received written documentation from NCDPI about it, and County Attorney Scott McKellar said he was also waiting on written confirmation from the state.

McKellar asked Matthews if they still expected to hear back about the potential for NMTC funds in February.

“I know they’re working on it,” Matthews replied, but said he wasn’t sure about the exact date.

There was no further discussion from the commissioners, who did not take any action after the presentation.

The commissioners implemented a new policy last month where they will not vote on matters until the second meeting of each month. That meeting is scheduled for January 22.