Supervisors’ CHS decision rankles school board
Lockers at Christiansburg High; new ones, at an estimated cost of $300,000, are part of an ongoing debate between the county supervisors and school board. File photo by Matt Gentry | The Roanoke Times
Montgomery County School Board members expressed dismay last week that county supervisors set aside $400,000 for school repairs and mandated that it be spent at Christiansburg High School.
“No way am I going to say I don’t want that $400,000. But it’s this board’s responsibility to say how we are going to spend that money,” board member Penny Franklin fumed at a Tuesday meeting as other board members signaled agreement.
“My comments are to echo what Ms. Franklin said,” School Board Chairman Wendell Jones said. “I do want the ability to decide how to use that money.”
Board members said they were dismayed that supervisors did not consult them before deciding to put aside money for Christiansburg High School. They took issue with supervisors’ description of unsafe conditions at the school, with Jones saying the board had spent “millions of dollars” ensuring safety.
Tattered auditorium seats, crumbling sidewalks and other items picked out by supervisors are aesthetic issues, not safety concerns, Jones said.
“Those things exist in all of our schools in this county,” Jones said.
As for the lack of a girls’ softball field at Christiansburg High, an item singled out by supervisors, school board members said they had long sought a way to deal with it.
Franklin took particular aim at Supervisor Chris Tuck, who led the supervisor’s Nov. 14 unanimous vote to set aside $400,000 in a special reserve for work on Christiansburg High School. Tuck said at the Nov. 14 meeting that his action came in response to comments from school volunteers and students, and noted he had asked for months for details of the school board’s plans for Christiansburg High and not received an answer.
Franklin said supervisors had the information they asked for.
“To quite frankly have someone who’s been involved in this governing process for less than a year run in and say ‘Christiansburg High School is falling apart, you haven’t done anything to keep that building up and you’ve got to do this and got to do that you’ve got the money, do it now!’ I was totally shocked … I’m just very, very, to put it nicely, annoyed,” Franklin said.
Tuck responded last week, saying that last spring, when the school board “suggested a tax rate that would support their budget, I didn’t think they were trying to micromanage the board of supervisors.”
The spending spat is the latest drop in a steady rain of budget worries that has descended on Montgomery County’s government bodies this year. The county passed a record tax increase to pay for construction of new high schools in Blacksburg and Riner, and a renovated middle school in Riner. But the schools’ operating budget was left far short of what the school board wanted and dozens of teaching and other positions were cut.
School board members said last week that rather than fix Christiansburg High School, they’d prefer to spend money on Christiansburg Elementary School, which Franklin called “desperately overcrowded.”
The next priority should be paying for feasibility studies to determine what should be done at the elementary school and also at the high school, which might be better replaced than repaired, school board members said.
The school board has a list of needs at Christiansburg High School that totals more than $1 million, including items like $60,000 to replace the outer doors to the gym, $52,000 to remove mounds from the front of the school, and $300,000 to replace lockers. There is $135,000 on the list for a girls’ softball field.
But, Franklin said, “I’m not so eager to throw money into a building that we might come back and say we’re going to do something totally different,” such as build a new high school elsewhere.
School board members said their biggest gripe was just that they were not consulted before supervisors put money aside for them.
“Let us run the schools,” Franklin said.
Jones said he and schools Superintendent Brenda Blackburn are scheduled to meet with county officials on Dec. 5 to discuss the situation.
“We’ve met more difficult challenges than this. We’ll work through this,” Jones said.
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Hooray for some one finally standing up to demands that just dont make scince.Why replace lockers if they are still in good working condition?Why not just repair the seats that need repaired?If we are honest in hind sight we should of repaired B.H.S. and also could of had some other alts. to the other scool situations.The economy did not support all the construction that is going on in this county on all these new schools.Thanks for hearing,Garry Davis
Comment by Garry Davis — November 24, 2012 @ 8:22 am
Is the SB actually complaining about being given extra money? I’m sure any other county department or private business would be thankful for extra money regardless of the conditions. The reason the BOS did it this way is because the SB can’t be trusted with our money.
Comment by Areyouserious? — November 24, 2012 @ 8:45 am
Thankful for a voice of reason…way to go Chris Tuck!
Comment by Janet Hinkley — November 24, 2012 @ 10:08 am
Ms. Franklin needs to get her head out of the sand and realize that Christiansburg High School IS falling apart. It was built at the same time and by the same contractor that built the Blacksburg High School that collapsed. That school was proclaimed by all to be dilapidated and in need of replacement BEFORE the gym collapsed. It is not reasonable to think the same conditions don’t exist at CHS. At least Chris Tuck and the Board of Supervisors are looking out for the students at CHS because it is clear that the School Board is not.
Ms. Franklin’s desire that the board of supervisor’s just give the school board money and then let them spend it as they see fit is symbolic of the huge problems that exist with this school system. They want an unlimited purse and no oversight. They are the only branch of County government that is allowed to demand such freedom. The other agencies in the government have to submit budgets and then some items are cut or modified and the BoS approves a final budget. The school board, on the other hand submits their demands and the BoS either approves it in its entirety or denies it. However, they do not make modifications or line-item cuts as they do to other departments.
Other agencies of government are told to make do with less money and to do more with less money and directed to cut pay, benefits and anything else needed to minimize the impact felt by the citizens. The school system, on the other hand, seems to pass the pain on to the parents and students FIRST, often choosing a budget path that will lead to a diminution in services that will be clearly felt by the parents and students but will largely leave the school employees unaffected. This is done in a not-so-thinly-veiled attempt to get parents to lobby the BoS to provide more money to the schools and is often followed by the hue and cry to raise taxes.
Had the Montgomery County School Board been better stewards of the public monies entrusted to them, perhaps simply providing money to them and letting them choose how to spend it would be a more viable solution. However, they have not demonstrated the fiscal responsibility needed to allow this. For example, this year they are moving the school administrative offices from the current location into the Montgomery County Government Center. To facilitate this move, the BoS allowed the school system to use almost half a million dollars that was left over in last year’s budget. They determined that about $100,000 in new and upgraded computer and electronic equipment was needed. They also decided they needed about $85,000 in new furniture for their new digs. Then another approximately $250,000 was reserved to cover moving expenses. The question that comes to mind after hearing this is, if you are buying new furniture and new computer equipment, what could possibly be left that is going to cost a quarter of a million dollars to move? This surplus was given to them largely without question, with the school board determining that this was the best way to spend this money this year, despite the fact that this year, parents are being asked to donate copy paper to their students classes because the school board has only provided each classroom with one case of paper to use.
So with rationing paper and other school supplies, it is clear that this school board thinks new furniture for its administrators should be more of a priority than should supplies for the students. Apparently they figure they should just ask the taxpayers to shoulder the additional burden, and expect to be able to do so from the comfort of their lavish new offices.
So tell me Ms. Franklin, how much copy paper would $400,000 buy. If you want to retain complete and unfettered discretion over how you spend the taxpayers’ money, perhaps you should demonstrate a little more fiscal responsibility and prioritize the actual education of the students over the creature comforts for the administration.
Comment by Chuck — November 24, 2012 @ 5:57 pm
More reckless spending by the schools. What else is new?
Comment by Quincy — December 8, 2012 @ 4:54 pm