In 2014, Aiken County voters approved a 10-year 1% Sales Tax to help fund reconstruction of a handful of schools in greatest need of improvement, including North Augusta High, Leavelle McCampbell Middle, Aiken High, Ridge Spring-Monetta’s K-12 campus, and the forthcoming Aiken County Career and Technology Center, a project which broke ground this month.

The 1% tax approved by voters in 2014 is a 10-year tax and does not auto-renew. In November 2024, Aiken County’s Board of Education intends to provide voters an opportunity to consider a renewal of this tax, which would help fund a new set of school campus renovations and improvements.

District administration and the school board have discussed a number of possible projects to prioritize and include for voter consideration on November’s ballot. District leadership has just completed a series of Community Input Meetings where stakeholders were invited to attend and share what they believe are the most urgent school facility improvement needs in the district. We appreciated the opportunity to discuss school facility improvement needs at this latest series of meetings directly with stakeholders that attended. At the close of those meetings, attendees were invited to share further insight through a survey. The invitation to share input through this survey is now open to all parents, students, teachers, staff, and community members.

As the Aiken Co. School Board considers, deliberates, and ultimately determines which school facility needs to prioritize for possible funding through a renewal of the 1% sales tax, they hope that everyone will take a few minutes to provide input on what facilities needs they believe are most urgent to address and that they’d like to see presented to voters for their consideration on November 5.