Referendum Frequently Asked Questions

The following FAQs regarding the District’s proposed Facilities Plan has been provided for information purposes.
*The FAQ answers were updated on February 9, 2018 to reflect the most current and accurate information.

1. What is the scope of the project?
2. How can you pay for this project without raising taxes?
3. How will traffic on Old Furnace Road be affected by adding the 9th grade campus?
4. Will the new school be big enough to have room for future growth?
5. Will the new BSHS have a Fine Arts Center?
6. What will happen to the property that the BS9 campus is on?
7. What investments have been made in the Chesnee community?
8. Why do we need artificial turf at the Boiling Spring Football Stadium?
9. How many students is the new building going to accommodate?
10. How many people will the new auditorium accommodate?
11. How many spectators will the new gym accommodate?
12. How many practice fields will there be? And where on the property will they be?
13. When the 9th grade property is sold, where will transportation and all the buses be moved to?
14. Is the school going to built in a manner that should additions be required 30 or 40 years from now it can be done so in an orderly fashion?
15. What is the reason for tearing down A and B wings and how much will that cost?
16. If there was a plan to build a new school for 5 years what was the reason for expanding the cafeteria at the high school?
17. How much additional parking will be added to the property?
18. Who will design and complete the work?

The plan is to build a brand new $100 million Boiling Springs High School (BSHS) on 34 acres near the present building, renovate the current BSHS to house our freshmen, at a cost of about $9 million, and do about $11 million in renovations to current athletics facilities including the stadium, baseball and softball complexes, and the tennis courts.

2. How can you pay for this project without raising taxes?

All of the revenue the District receives from the current debt service millage is designated for buildings and equipment. Those funds amount to about $9.5 million annually and are adequate to make the payments on the loan to fund this project while taking care of ongoing facility and equipment needs in the District.

The District purchased land across from Hames Road along Old Furnace Road and has constructed a fourth entrance onto the site; it is currently being used solely for construction traffic. Eventually it will have a traffic light at the intersection and will be used for high school parents to drop off/pick up their children.  Student drivers will still enter/exit off McMillan Blvd. Buses will still use the middle entrance off Old Furnace, and parents of freshmen will used a lengthened entrance at the bottom of the hill where a Spartanburg Sheriff's Deputy supervises traffic.

The current projection is to construct a building with nearly 320,000 square feet which is more than the current square footage of BSHS by over a third. The three classroom wings will be two-stories. With the renovation of the current BSHS into space for the 9th graders, there will be enough space to meet growth in student population numbers for years to come.  There is also available space on the property to build a fourth classroom wing if that should ever become necessary.

Yes. It is going to be an outstanding venue for student drama and musical performances.

The Board is working with Spencer Hines and a development group out of the Atlanta area to market the 64+ acres.  Preliminary plans are for a grocery store anchor, retail along the three road frontages that border the property, residential and multi-family housing and a YMCA there in the heart of Boiling Springs. The Board of Trustees is striving to bring a quality development to the citizens of our community. The money from the sale of the property will be used to move the District’s maintenance and transportation departments which are currently housed on that land. Funds from the sale will also be used to help relocate the Upstate Family Resource Center, which is a valuable asset to so many across our District.

Spartanburg Two is committed to providing quality facilities for all of its students regardless of where they live in our District.

In just the past few years the District has invested more than $33 million dollars in the Chesnee community including the construction of a brand new Chesnee Elementary School on Fairfield Road; a six-classroom addition, softball field and resurfacing of the track at Chesnee Middle; a new gymnasium with a weight lifting room, wrestling practice area, locker rooms, training room and concessions, an 11-classroom addition including a STEAM Academy, a football ticket booth/restrooms facility, state-of-the-art auditorium, Fine Arts wing, and JROTC classrooms at Chesnee High School.

Boiling Springs High School currently has multiple lacrosse and soccer teams in addition to the football team that use the field at Bulldog stadium. Our coaches do an incredible job of maintaining the field despite constant usage year-round.

However, we feel that artificial turf will provide a consistent, safe playing surface for all of our athletes. It will also require significantly less maintenance for our staff.

With natural turf the field has to be given time to heal after a game; that is not the case with artificial turf; it can withstand constant usage. That means additional groups like the Marching Band and perhaps community groups will be able to use the field.

Installation of the field and new lights will start the week after the Class of 2018 graduates so that it will be in place for games beginning this coming fall.

It will have a core capable of accommodating 2,000 students.

The plan is to provide seating for 800.  The stage and backstage areas will be conducive to both drama and music, and an orchestra pit is being constructed.

The plans are for 2,000 in the main gym and 500 in the auxiliary gym.

Construction is underway for new baseball and softball fields with a common press box/restroom/concession/storage facility at the back of the property along McMillan Blvd.  They will be sprigged this spring so that the fields will have two growing seasons to become firmly established when play on them begins in the spring of 2020.  The current baseball field will be transformed into a football/soccer/lacrosse practice field.  There will be a 100-yard grass field with lights in front of the school directly in front of the band practice room for those students (where the old tennis courts were once located).

The Transportation facility will be located on 41 acres of property along Foster Grove Road behind Deb's Mini mart on Hwy 221.  It will be a 10,000 sq.ft. building with offices, restrooms and a large meeting space, a concrete parking lot with slots for 100 buses and a washing station.  Asphalt parking will be provided for 100 employee/visitor vehicles.  We will combine the buses from both Chesnee and Boiling Springs onto that one space.  Fencing and lighting will be provided.

Maintenance will be relocated to the back of the 12 acres at Holden's Chapel where our BSH softball field is currently located.

We are in negotiations to partner with the YMCA people to locate the UFRC into a new building they would like to construct on the land where BSH-9 is currently situated.

Yes, although future school boards may need to decide at what point Boiling Springs is large enough and other options would need to be considered.

It would require the District to remodel and renovate those two areas, especially the replacement of the HVAC system, adding significantly to the cost of the project that would have no use since the freshman class is generally about 600 students. Even with those wings gone, there is still much space available for growth in student population. The cost to remove the wings is included in the project.

However, this, too, is somewhat preliminary and could be changed if in the process of completing the engineering studies of the building it is determined that we can mothball those wings and protect them with a certain amount of HVAC, the plan could be amended.

There was not a plan for five years; the District has been working with the issue for over a decade and to this point, renovation and additions have been the most cost effective. The remodeling in the kitchen and cafeteria as well as the media center and auxiliary gym additions were quite necessary and will continue to be of value to the students and staff at BSH-9 in partnership with the high school.

This is a little preliminary, but our estimate is there will be a total of 1,040 parking spaces when construction is complete.

The Board of Trustees has hired Jumper Carter Sease to be the architects and Thompson Turner to be in charge of construction. They are the same two firms who designed and built our recently completed Shoally Creek Elementary School. As with that project, they plan to involve local, experienced subcontractors as much as possible.