|
Boards seek common ground on school expansion plan Supervisors put school plans on the table
The Goochland Board of Supervisors has reached consensus on how to accommodate Goochland’s expanding student base. At a workshop session last week, the supervisors opted to fund expansions to all three Goochland elementary schools. Dr. Linda Underwood, Goochland school superintendent, told a School Board workshop session she sat in on the session and came away with some ideas on exactly where the board is headed. “The consensus of the supervisors at that meeting is that they would fund Option 4… period,” she told the school board at a workshop session last week. “That’s the offer that’s on the table regarding school construction.” That plan included six new classrooms at both Byrd and Randolph elementaries and seven new classrooms at Goochland Elementary School. All three facilities would receive a multipurpose room, but the plan left some board members pondering the lingering question of the Specialty Center. Currently, students from that facility must walk or be bused to cafeteria and library services at the GES campus. Option 4 does not address the Specialty Center issues, and according to some school board members, leaves the plan woefully lacking. Underwood requested $23.1 million for an expanded GES at the July 1 Board of Supervisors meeting, but the panel deemed that proposal too expensive. The new plan calls for the seven additional classrooms and some additions to the cafeteria and kitchen at GES at an earlier estimated cost of over $6 million. School board chairman Drew Meng said that estimate doesn’t include the necessary elements to make the plan workable. “I don’t think the $6.3 million even includes making the cafeteria bigger, and it doesn’t include the media center,” Meng said. “It sounds like they’re saying let’s just start building this thing and see how it goes,” Meng added. He said even with the additional classrooms at GES under the plan, trailers would be necessary to accommodate the overflow. “Trailers are going to be a permanent thing at that school from now on,” Meng said. Other members said they couldn’t approve a plan that excluded a solution to the Specialty Center dilemma. “I’d like to see what would have to be added to Goochland Elementary to bring the Specialty Center kids in,” school board member Jim Haskell said. “That’s a concern of everybody because having them separated means we’re bussing kids, and they’re walking across to eat lunch everyday.” Haskell added there are just too many variables in the current supervisors’ offer to consider until more details are known. Although the two boards decided to meet jointly to discuss expansion and renovation plans as soon as possible, no date has been set. “Since the Board of Supervisors meeting of July 1 we have not heard anything about a joint meeting between the two boards and would certainly welcome the chance to find a resolution to this issue together,” said Brad Franklin, Research and Information Services Analyst for the Goochland County Public Schools. New garage plan aired Regarding the bus garage, Underwood said the supervisors opted to spearhead that project and conveyed plans to construct a pre-fabricated garage and county fueling station at Route 522 and Bulldog Way. Underwood said planning for a more sophisticated facility should cease, and Moseley would no longer be needed to design the project. “They said we needed to quit Moseley for the bus garage planning, and that they would do a design-build project for the bus garage,” Underwood said. “We would have a metal, pre fabricated bus garage that would cost significantly less than Moseley had estimated,” she added. “They feel very strongly that a bus garage does not require a school architect,” she told the board. “So, they’re taking over the entire bus garage project,” questioned Haskell. Underwood explained the Board of Supervisors has the power to design and build a project and the school system does not. The main difference between design and build, and traditional bidding, is that one firm designs and does the construction, eliminating a step in the process. Underwood said she’s unclear on the details of the process but will meet with county purchasing agent Al Elias next week to gather more details. Underwood and other board members expressed a desire to be involved in the design-build process. The money already spent to design a proposed 700 student GES has already exceeded $190,000 of the $618,000 the Board of Supervisors allotted for design of all the projects. “The funding they approved was to take the additions and renovations to Goochland Elementary School to 700 students, and the additions and multipurpose rooms at Byrd and Randolph,” Underwood said. “That $600,000 was sufficient to take those three projects all the way through bid documents.” Underwood said the false starts mean that design money may not be sufficient to fund the design phase of the remaining projects. “We have spent about $200,000 on a 700-student Goochland Elementary School,” Underwood added. “We’ve thrown away over $200,000 in doing what they asked us to do, and now we’re not going to have enough money in that $600,000 to plan Byrd and Randolph plus a new plan for Goochland Elementary through bid documents,” she concluded. Underwood said that the Board of Supervisors planned to send a letter to the School Board detailing and explaining their actions at the special meeting. “Lots of questions came up at that meeting that I don’t have answers for,” Underwood told the board. That letter was written on July 23 by William Quarles, Chairman of the Board of Supervisors, to Meng. In it the supervisors reiterated their support for Option 4: In response to this letter, Franklin said, “The school board is in the process of gathering information and plans to respond soon.” Interim editor Amy Condra contributed to this report. (0) Comments • Email This Article |
| Comments |
|
There are no comments for this entry Submit Your Comments Below
|