2024 School Bond Referendum

At its April 2, 2024, meeting, the Orange County Board of Commissioners adopted a preliminary resolution stating its intent to proceed with a $300 million school bond referendum on the November 2024 ballot. The proceeds of the bond will benefit Orange County Schools and the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools systems.

Public Schools Assessment for Orange County

The Orange County School Bond will be the last item on the ballot. This is how the bond will appear on the ballot:

Orange County School Bonds 

(For Orange County Schools and Chapel Hill – Carrboro City Schools)

Additional property taxes may be levied on property located in Orange County in an amount sufficient to pay the principal of and interest on bonds if approved by the following ballot question. 

Shall the order authorizing $300,000,000 bonds plus interest to pay capital costs of providing school facilities and paying related costs and providing that additional taxes may be levied in an amount sufficient to pay the principal of and interest on the bonds, as adopted by the County’s Board of Commissioners on June 18, 2024, be approved, in light of the following: 

(1) The estimated cumulative cost over the life of the bond, using the highest interest rate charged for similar debt over the last 20 years, would be $480,360,000. 

(2) The estimated amount of property tax liability increase for each one hundred thousand dollars ($100,000) of property tax value to service the cumulative cost over the life of the bond provided above would be $34.10 per year. 

[ ] YES [ ] NO

Hamilton, Portie-Ascott to serve as co-chairs

Commissioners appoint members of committee to educate public about school bond

Orange County commissioners Jean Hamilton and Phyllis Portie-Ascott will serve as co-chairs of a committee to help educate the public about a proposed $300 million school bond expected to be on the ballot in November 2024. The Orange County Board of Commissioners approved the formation of a 12-member Bond Education Committee at its April 16 meeting.

The Board of Commissioners appointed six community members—three from each school district—to serve on the committee at its June 4 meeting. The Board of Commissioners received 34 applications—22 from residents in the Chapel Hill-Carrboro School District and 12 from Orange County Schools district. Sandra Earnhardt, Jason Johnson and Vina Modaress will represent Orange County Schools district. Benjamin Alschuler, Anissa McLendon and Andrea Tanner will represent CHCCS.

In addition, CHCCS schools will be represented by Board of Education member Rani Dasi and Al Ciarochi, Deputy Superintendent for Operations. Orange County Schools will be represented by Board of Education member Sarah Smylie and Chief Operations Officer Fredrick Davis (Mr. Davis is replacing Dwayne Foster).

The committee will help develop informational materials to explain the needs for the bond, design and implement a campaign to distribute information about the bonds, create a process to hold information meetings with interested community groups and encourage community members to vote in the 2024 election.