BLOOMINGDALE ― In 2006, Savannah-area voters approved a penny sales tax to fund construction of a high school in a remote pine forest.
A half-hour drive from downtown Savannah, the site of New Hampstead High School drew skeptics. Even some school board members wondered when there’d be enough kids to fill it. Located on Chatham County’s western edge, locals labeled it “a school in nowhere.”
Nowhere is now somewhere. The region’s population has doubled this century, with the highest concentration of growth in areas flanking I-16 and I-95 known informally as West Chatham. The cities of Pooler and Port Wentworth, as well as two sprawling master-planned residential communities, The Highlands and New Hampstead, are home to a growing number of first-time buyers.
Many work at nearby manufacturers, including jet maker Gulfstream and now Hyundai, which opened a massive electric vehicle factory last fall. Others are employed by businesses tied to the Georgia Ports Authority, operator of the nation’s third-busiest and fastest-growing container cargo port.
Two decades after approving the “school in nowhere,” the electorate again faces a key vote to build new schools in the county’s fastest-developing hinterlands.
A referendum to renew an Educational Special Purpose Local Sales Tax, or ESPLOST, is the lone item on the ballot in a March 18 special election. Early voting on the 1% tax began Feb. 24.
Credit: Courtesy of Savannah-Chatham County Public School System
Credit: Courtesy of Savannah-Chatham County Public School System
It is the first of what will likely be three penny sales tax proposals coming to area voters in the next 20 months. All are aimed at funding infrastructure improvements — schools, drainage, roads, bridges — to catch up with recent breakneck growth and set the stage for more in the decades ahead.
ESPLOST alone is projected to generate about $700 million over the next five years to fund dozens of new schools, renovations and facility upgrades across Chatham County. Some $235 million of that is designated for new schools construction and expansion in West Chatham, including a 3,000-student campus that would include a K-8 school and a high school in Pooler.
Credit: Courtesy of Savannah-Chatham County Public School System
Credit: Courtesy of Savannah-Chatham County Public School System
“With the ESPLOST project list, we went really to our needs,” said Megan Davidson, the Savannah-Chatham Public School System’s chief operating officer, “and in places like the West Chatham-area schools, our students in those schools are at their maximum; they can’t have any more.”
In addition to ESPLOST, votes are looming on an existing infrastructure and capital improvements tax, or SPLOST, and a proposed transportation project-related tax, TSPLOST. The SPLOST is up for renewal this November and TSPLOST is expected on the ballot in 2026.
Should all three pass, the revenues generated would fund more than $2 billion in capital improvements. Those projects are seen as vital to a region rife with growth pains ranging from traffic congestion and outdated stormwater drainage systems to a housing shortage and, yes, overcrowded schools.
Special purpose sales taxes have long been popular in Chatham County, with proponents marketing the fact that out-of-county visitors, such as tourists, contribute an estimated one-third of the revenue. ESPLOST has passed four times previously and received a record-high 72% approval the last time it was on the ballot in 2019. SPLOST also has a perfect record, having gained approval seven times over the last 40 years.
Yet there are limits to the embrace — TSPLOST, which would push the sales tax rate on goods and services from 7% to 8%, has failed twice.
Given the current political climate, where government cost-cutting is seemingly in vogue, school district leaders are cautious about ESPLOST’s chances.
“Traditionally, ESPLOST has passed in every precinct in the county, so we know that there’s support out there,” said Kurt Hetager, the Savannah-Chatham Public School System’s chief public affairs officer, “and we certainly want to keep that momentum going.”
Classrooms filled as fast as they can be built
New Hampstead High School, the “nowhere” school, has never suffered for enrollment despite its once-remote location. It sits within a mile of I-16, and from there a less than 10-minute drive to the new Hyundai plant, which plans to add thousands of jobs in the coming years.
The 11,000-home master planned community around the school is the current epicenter of Savannah region residential development. Just in the past 14 months, 484 permits representing more than $117 million in investment have been issued, according to Savannah city government statistics.
The Savannah Area Chamber of Commerce endorsed ESPLOST on Feb. 25, the day after early voting began, with the organization’s president singling out the proposed construction of the West Chatham campus in Pooler.
Credit: Courtesy of Savannah-Chatham County Public School System
Credit: Courtesy of Savannah-Chatham County Public School System
West Chatham would join New Hampstead High School (1,200 students), New Hampstead K-8 (1,500 students), Rice Creek K-8 (1,000 students), Godley Station K-8 (1,200) and Groves, a 6th through 12th grade school (2,400), as new facilities to open along the I-16 and 1-95 corridors since 2010.
ESPLOST would also fund a 400-student addition at Rice Creek and renovations at several schools in the western part of the county.
The activity indicates that while projections for district-wide enrollment remain flat through 2028, the longer-term classroom demand will create a crisis without the new schools, district officials said.
ESPLOST does face some opposition, led by the Chatham County Republican Party and Chairman Brittany Brown, an anti-sales tax advocate. Brown and party officers have a policy against speaking to the press but have posted eight reasons to vote against ESPLOST on the party website.
“By ending ESPLOST, Chatham County can explore more sustainable and equitable ways to support its educational system without burdening residents with additional taxes,” the party’s statement reads.
Turnout for the ESPLOST vote is projected to be low. The March 18 election date — the day after the city’s biggest celebration of the year, the Savannah St. Patrick’s Day Parade — presents a challenge but was unavoidable with collections of the current ESPLOST set to end in late April. And campaign materials, such as mailers and television, radio and web ads, have yet to be distributed.
“There’s inherent risk, sure, but much of it is beyond our control,” Superintendent Denise Watts said. “We can’t gauge the polls.”
About the Author
Keep Reading
The Latest
Featured
