It’s been said that justice delayed is justice denied. I think that applies to maintenance of our public schools, too: Maintenance delayed is maintenance denied, and sometimes the delay increases the final cost as well.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools is seeking a bond referendum in November 2016 on our capital request of $805 million. Some officials have suggested delaying that bond request until 2017. Can we really afford to wait an additional year before asking the voters for $805 million to help us relieve overcrowding, create new magnet seats and repair or renovate older schools?  I don’t think so. We have pressing needs, many of them the result of maintenance too long deferred because of limited capital funds.

I believe that our needs are too urgent to wait an extra year. We have had overcrowding issues in our district for more than a decade – and our continued growth each year has exacerbated that overcrowding.  This year, we have 1,100 mobile classrooms in use because some schools have more students than they can seat. Overcrowding means some students eat lunch before 11 a.m. School spaces such as media centers, cafeterias, gymnasiums and multipurpose rooms are challenged to serve student enrollment that significantly exceeds the enrollment the school was designed to serve.

Too many of our buildings are too old. In all, 75 of our schools are more than 40 years old. Eleven of our high schools were built before 1970. Our bond request would address some of the most pressing repairs and renovations in our district. Eight of the projects are at high schools and the plan also would add two new high schools that we badly need. The bond request would build 10 new schools, replace four others and renovate or add on to 14 more. It would give us about 1,100 new classrooms, removing the need for 300 mobiles.

The money from a bond will support our efforts to expand and create new magnets in order to create 4,000 new magnet seats in support of the Board of Education’s recently adopted goals and guiding principles for student assignment. It will allow us to reopen a closed high school as a magnet and create space in existing schools for partial magnets. Some have argued that a bond referendum should happen after a student-assignment plan is finalized; however, I would argue that our capital request allows us to accelerate approved goals and guiding principles by creating new magnet seats throughout the county.

The bond will also help us continue to find opportunities to use all of the schools closed during the recession several years ago. By August 2016, we will have reopened six schools closed after the recession. The bond will allow us to restore E. E. Waddell as a high school by making it a magnet high school. The bond will also help us improve some facilities at home schools.

The bond request, while substantially larger than the 2013 one, does not address all of our capital needs. To do that – to do all the projects, repairs and renovations we’ll need in the next decade – would cost $2 billion. We are asking for just over a third of that.

Who benefits? Our students, this community’s children. A little more than half of the bond money will build new schools. The rest will repair school roofs, upgrade heating and air conditioning systems and add enough new space for 20,000 students. It will renovate playgrounds and gymnasiums. All of this work is sorely needed and all of it will benefit our students.

The bond money is also spread across districts based on the urgency of needs.

• District 1 projects in the bond proposal total $54.2 million.

• In District 2, they total $275 million.

• In District 3, the total is $80.8 million.

• In District 4, the total is $101.2 million.

• District 5 projects total $152.1 million.

• District Six projects total $114.6 million.

I want to be sure our community understands the way bonds work: We will not spend all of the $805 million in two or three years. Our new construction and renovations funded by bonds are always spread out over several years for two reasons: The county sells bonds over a period of years to finance school construction. Our projects are scheduled over multiple years as well. Thus, we were still finishing 2007 bond projects when we began receiving 2013 bond money. It’s important to also remember that when we request a bond, we make public what we intend to do with the money – and we have kept our promises, bringing in projects on time and within budget.

In the end, I hope that our community and our commissioners will remember that the bond request isn’t about politics. It’s about educating children. To help every child learn and grow, we need enough classrooms, enough seats, enough science labs and playgrounds and gymnasiums. The $805 million bond we are requesting will build those things for the benefit of our students.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools cannot generate its own revenue, so our only option is to ask the county. To not ask for this money would be failing our students. As superintendent, I put children first. It is far easier for me to explain why I advanced our capital needs to the county than it would be to explain why I didn’t request funding support for our critical facility needs.

Our children need and deserve our support. An $805 million bond will provide some much-needed capital support that will benefit our students.

Ann Clark is superintendent of Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools.

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