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Clear to partly cloudy. Low 49F. Winds light and variable.

Currituck County officials were advised Thursday that the $14 million addition and renovation project at Moyock Elementary School is several weeks ahead of schedule.

Currituck County officials were advised Thursday that the $14 million addition and renovation project at Moyock Elementary School is several weeks ahead of schedule.

CURRITUCK — Currituck property owners are likely facing a property tax increase to pay for the new elementary school on Tulls Creek Road.

Currituck has been setting aside money from current property tax revenue to pay for the new school since the last fiscal year — a plan the county anticipated would pay for the school.

But County Manager Ike McRee told a joint meeting of Currituck commissioners and Currituck Board of Education members Thursday night that the initial projected cost of the school has jumped as much as 66 percent because of higher construction costs due to inflation.

“The Tulls Creek School was originally a $30 million budget but now we are looking at a $48 million to $50 million budget,” McRee said. “We are looking at, frankly, a need for a tax increase to pay for the expected cost of the new Tulls Creek Elementary School.”

The new elementary school was proposed to be financed through property tax funds that are being set aside after Currituck adjusted its property tax rate for the 2021-22 fiscal year that ended this past June 30.

With construction scheduled to start in November 2023, the Tulls Creek school is expected to open in time for the 2025-26 school year. The county purchased the land for the school in April 2021, paying $890,000 for the 36-acre tract.

Currituck commissioners actually cut the county’s property tax rate for the last fiscal year by 2 cents from 48 cents to 46 cents after a reevaluation showed that property values increased an average of 20 percent.

If Currituck had adopted a revenue-neutral tax rate following the revaluation — a rate allowing collection of the same amount of revenue — the property tax rate would have fallen to 41 cents.

But the county voted for a 46-cent property tax rate that will raise an additional $3.6 million in revenue annually that will go toward new school capital projects.

The district also faces spending as much as $26 million in the short term for needed repairs and upgrades to the district’s 10 schools.

Some of the needed facility improvements across the district over the next eight years include new HVAC units, including two chillers at the high school costing $1 million, structural repairs, roof and window replacements.

Commissioner Mike Payment asked school district Operations Director Matt Mullins to provide a more detailed breakdown of the most important projects and suggested the county could bear the cost on a pay-as-you-go basis.

“The chiller, would that be a 2023-24 item, is the roofing OK for two more years, three more years?” Payment asked. “Maybe next year you need $2 million, next year you need $5 million. That helps us when we start planning for multiple years.”

Currituck Schools Superintendent Matt Lutz told officials that the district will need to add a new middle school and expand the vocational high school concept in the next six years. He said land for future schools needs to be purchased in the “near future.”

Lutz also said the Board of Education is not currently asking that a bond referendum be placed before voters to fund the district’s capital projects.

Two capital projects currently underway at Moyock Elementary School and Moyock Middle School are currently several weeks ahead of schedule, officials were told.

The county is using savings to pay for a $14 million addition at Moyock Elementary and the $7 million addition at Moyock Middle School.

“Moyock Elementary is deep into their progress,” Lutz said. “The second-floor slab has been poured, plumbing is being put in place. MMS (Moyock Middle School), the steel decking has been completed and we have started on the rooftops.”

The elementary school expansion will add room for around 210 additional students while the middle school project will accommodate around 165 additional students. Both projects are expected to be completed by the start of the next school year.

“We recognize the school additions at MMS and MES (Moyock Elementary School) should allow for future growth through the 2027-2028 (school year),” Lutz said.

Lutz said the district’s enrollment has increased by 120 students this school year.

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