On July 21, the board of supervisors met to discuss the school’s capital improvement program.

Supervisors agreed that the three elementary schools should be improved in response to the county’s expanding student population, but continued to oppose the construction of a new school.

At their July 1 board meeting, supervisors learned that renovating and enlarging Goochland Elementary School would cost an estimated $23 million, almost as much as a new school, according to what representatives from Moseley Architects told the Goochland County School Board.

“To me, this is the most tortured planning experience I ever say in my life,” said District 5 Supervisor Jim Eads.

“I can’t believe that there’s any logic to putting a big addition on Goochland Elementary,” he added, pointing out the current state of the economy.

The board favored an option that would involve incremental changes to all three elementary schools, including adding six classrooms to Randolph and Byrd Elementary Schools and seven classrooms to Goochland Elementary School, as well as multipurpose rooms at Randolph and Byrd. The cost for these improvements would be an estimated $15,060,289.

“The school board has to sign off on this as the plan,” said chairman William Quarles, Jr. “Then we go from there.”

The school board was scheduled to discuss the issue on July 22.

However, Brad Franklin, Research and Information Services Analyst for the Goochland County Public Schools, says that the school board has historically prefer an option that would include a new school, which he says would accommodate the expanding population in the center of the county.

“The school board is consistent in its view that building the new facility for 700 students is the best solution, financially and educationally speaking,” he said.

On June 24 the school board passed a resolution endorsing the project and requesting that supervisors issue bonds to fund it.

Board members originally wanted supervisors to approve building a 700-student elementary school for the central part of the county for $24 million. A majority of supervisors said voters would have to approve such a plan through a referendum.

Enrollment has been approaching capacity at the county’s three elementary schools.

Supervisors have agreed to issue bonds to expand Byrd and Randolph elementary schools at a cost of $8.7 million. But the board put off issuing the bonds until the School Board looked into the cost of expanding Goochland Elementary School, for which county government leaders agreed to borrow money without a referendum.

Renovations at the 50-year-old school would increase space from 44,000 to more than 100,000 square feet, Moseley architects said at last night’s School Board workshop.

Richmond Times-Dispatch staff writer Calvin Trice contributed to this story.