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The King George Board of Supervisors last week showed little enthusiasm to let the School Board spend down $226K in funds remaining after the construction of Sealston Elementary School, which opened in September 2004.
Superintendent Candace Brown has publicly mentioned several times in the last few years that the Sealston construction fund had over $200K in it.
But it wasn’t until earlier this month that Brown decided to address that money pile by suggesting at a meeting on November 12 that the School Board ask Supervisors if they could spend the money on playground equipment and other items for the elementary school.
The School Board approved the request and forwarded it to the county board.
Supervisors discussed a request by the School Board to approve and appropriate most of $226K remaining in the construction fund.
They were provided a list that grouped costs and items as follows:
$126,619 – playground equipment
$35,600 – security cameras in the back of the school
$18,560 – acoustic baffles for the cafeteria and gym
$10,000 – stage curtain
$2,814 - three cafeteria tables
$30,642 – technology items for classrooms
$930 – shades for office windows
Supervisor Jim Howard commented that he thought the School Board or Brown should come before the Board of Supervisors in person to ask for the funding.
Howard added, “Someone should be here outlining why it wasn’t spent, does this equal what the other schools have now, and why we are doing it five years later?”
Howard added, “I would prefer that the School Board come in or the Superintendent come in and chat about it and let us think about it.”
Supervisor Chairman Cedell Brooks agreed and said he wanted to provide Brown an opportunity to come to a meeting of the Board and explain her rationale for the School Board’s request to spend the construction fund remainder.
Supervisor James Mullen said he agreed that somebody from the School Board or the Superintendent should come before the Board to explain what the request is for.
Supervisors Joe Grzeika and Dale Sisson both stated they did not support the request.
“We are looking at some pretty interesting times ahead, some challenges,” Grzeika said. “We’ve got other needs in our capital projects that we could actually put these funds towards, stuff that has been wanting for awhile in our capital improvement plan.”
Grzeika added, “I guess if they were important, we would have heard about them before.” He also said, “We just went through and are going to authorize carryover funds of $250K. This is becoming routine. I couldn’t support this. They need to have a plan. They need to be in their capital improvement plan or in their budget. The fact that we identified a balance and told them there was a balance - they had to work pretty hard to include three cafeteria tables to get as close to the total as possible.”
Sisson said he was open to hearing the presentation, but added, “I also don’t support the request certainly at this time for a number of reasons.”
Sisson said the remaining funds were part of a supplemental appropriation from county funds. That supplemental appropriation totaled $12.5M.
“We’ve got two major construction projects ongoing with the schools right now- a new high school and renovating the existing high school,” Sisson said.
He added, “I think with those projects are still open, I think it’s premature to look at doing something like this. There are just a number of factors why I can’t support the request.”
Brooks said that they would offer Brown the opportunity to come before the Board to at least explain the request, if she wanted to do so.
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