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Financial challenges loom for schools
Massaponax Church Road project talks continue; School Board addresses looming financial challenges
BY KAREN BOLIPATA
Date published: 12/18/2007
BY KAREN BOLIPATA
The Spotsylvania County School Board and Board of Supervisors have approved an agreement that makes the supervisors responsible for overseeing Massaponax Church Road's $5.5-million improvement.
The School Board approved the agreement in closed session earlier this month, and the Board of Supervisors OK'd it last week.
The project, funded by the School Board, involves the straightening and widening of a half-mile section of the road near a new county elementary school to meet Virginia Department of Transportation standards.
In an interview last week, School Board Chairman Don Holmes said the improvements will make the road safer.
"That doesn't mean Massaponax Church Road is unsafe," he said. "But we need to have consideration for turning lanes and all of that as the buses try to get in and out in the morning and afternoon."
The agreement caps the cost to the School Board at $5.5 million, and says the Board of Supervisors will install and pay for a 12-inch water main for the school.
Under the agreement, the road must be completed within two years of the school's fall 2008 opening. The road is currently scheduled for completion in 2010.
At a work session earlier this month, the School Board also discussed Spotsylvania's composite index for the next two years. The index is the measure of a locality's ability to pay for standards of quality.
According to the state Department of Education, the index is calculated using factors such as gross income, taxable retail sales and the true value of retail property.
Because Spotsylvania's index went up, meaning its ability to pay has increased, the county's state funding will decrease.
"That's a bad thing from the locality standpoint," finance director John Reeder said. "The locality will have to make up for the funding that was lost."
This may include reducing programs, he said.
The money the school division borrows to build schools will go up $4 million next year, he added. More revenue also will be needed for the opening of the school on Massaponax Church Road and the reopening of the John J. Wright facility.
Karen Bolipata: 540/374-5418
Email: kbolipata@freelancestar.com
Date published: 12/18/2007
Most recent reader comments:
School Board Money......
(posted by
simonsez
, Dec. 18, 2007 4:06 pm)
Now come on...the School Board has 5.5 million for this project...It's TAX PAYER Money dufus!!! Here go the TAX increases. And we even borrow money to build schools. This article plays to the stupidity of the County Tax payer...period!
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