As financial situation for school district grows more dire, questions arise about extent to which the Board of Supervisors are hearing the district’s needs.
by Adele Uphaus
MANAGING EDITOR AND CORRESPONDENT
The Stafford County Board of Supervisors indicated this week that it could not, or would not, answer most of the questions posed earlier this month by the School Board, several weeks after the questions were sent and almost a month after the school division answered a series of budget-related questions from supervisors.
County Administrator Randall Vosburg sent the supervisors’ questions to the School Board, via superintendent Thomas Taylor, on March 4, in advance of a joint budget work session scheduled for March 7.
Supervisors requested information about vacant teaching positions, the number of employees who make more than $100,000 per year, the current salaries and length of employment of all support staff, and how the school division’s benefits package compares to that of Prince William County Public Schools.
Though supervisors backed out of the March 7 work session, school division staff provided answers to these questions in public to the School Board, which met anyway.
Taylor also sent the answers to Vosburg by email on March 11.
On March 15, Taylor then sent a list of questions for the Board of Supervisors from the School Board. The School Board also discussed these questions in public at the March 7 work session.
“The intent of the School Board’s questions are to better understand the County’s perspective on some critical issues so that School Board may be better informed as to how to present information in a more agreeable manner to the Supervisors in the future,” Taylor wrote in his email to Vosburg, which the Advance received through a request under the Freedom of Information Act. “There is a shared belief among many on the School Board that the Supervisors may not fully understand how dire the situation is for school administration and to that end, we feel compelled to help illuminate a better understanding.”
Taylor continued, “It would be fair to say that not all School Board Members thought that submitting questions would be productive and I feel that in honor of diverse opinions and transparency, I need to disclose that. That said, I hope that these questions are received in the manner in which they were intended…which is to say, with the hope of stimulating productive dialogue and better understanding of school needs.”
The list of 16 questions sought to understand why the County’s five-year plan seeks to “maintain” the current per-pupil transfer, which is ranked 111 out of 132 school divisions in the state, rather than increase it; whether supervisors have found the school division’s five-year budget to be helpful; whether there is a yearly “report card” on how the County has achieved its goals for the school division as outlined in its strategic plan; how supervisors plan to fund the school division’s major maintenance needs; and whether there are plans for relocating the public day school, which is for students with autism and emotional disabilities, while the building that holds it, Drew Middle School, is rebuilt—among other requests.
Vosburg returned the list of questions to Taylor on March 28. The County answered three out of the 16 questions and added the following note to the remaining 13: “Staff cannot speak for the Board of Supervisors on this item.”
Supervisors press School Board on capital maintenance requests
One of the questions the supervisors did not answer concerned how they consider and decide upon what capital maintenance projects to fund. But supervisors continue to press the school division and School Board on their decision-making regarding capital maintenance.
The two boards met for a joint work session on Tuesday, at which Taylor and Jason Towery, the division’s executive director of facilities and maintenance, presented information on critical infrastructure maintenance needs and discussed the recent failure of the boiler at Rodney Thompson Middle School, which caused a pipe to burst and scalding water to pour out into the cafeteria and hallways.
Following the presentation, supervisor Darrell English, Hartwood district representative, stated that he thinks there should be an external audit of the school division’s facilities.
On Wednesday evening, Vosburg sent Taylor a new question from Supervisor Crystal Vanuch, the Rock Hill district representative. Vanuch asked to see the school division’s “repair, replacement, and renovation,” or 3R, list for last year.
“I want to see what they proposed on 3R every year for the last four years,” Vanuch wrote. “What got funded/fixed and what didn’t and where did it go on the list. Is the boiler at Rodney Thompson on last year’s list?”
In response, Taylor told Vosburg, “Good news. You should already have our 3R lists for the past several years. They are sent to the County every year in October. So, that part should be pretty easy for you to obtain. I take it the Supervisors haven’t been reviewing these lists when we send them?”
“It’s a little troubling that this clearly didn’t resonate.”
“Per the example of [Rodney Thompson Middle School], the slide referencing that incident in our presentation had all of the relevant information sought. It’s a little troubling that this clearly didn’t resonate,” Taylor continued.
On Thursday, Taylor replied to Vanuch’s question in an email to Vosburg that included a link to a folder containing capital improvement plans going back to 2008, when the division first started planning to replace the heat pump at Rodney Thompson.
The school was constructed in 2000 and replacements were scheduled to occur in 2013, “normal, proactive replacements based on typical life cycles,” Taylor wrote.
This plan didn’t change until 2012, when “apparently due to funding issues, the projects get pushed from [fiscal year 2013] to FY16,” Taylor wrote. “Then in FY14 and in FY15 the HVAC replacement projects are pushed again to FY19 and the projects appear to be more comprehensive than just heat pumps. Well, as you can imagine, that work never happened either.”
In capital improvements plans for 2020, 2021, and 2022, the Rodney Thompson HVAC replacements are shown to be completed in 2029 or 2030. In the 2023 plan, they are deferred again to 2031.
“In FY24, we attempted to bring the project forward and fund it in FY25 because it’s becoming more urgent, but the project can’t be funded because of the higher urgency of [projects at Brooke Point High School and Stafford Middle School,” Taylor wrote.
In the current proposed capital improvement plan, the Rodney Thompson project is fourth on the list of critical systems repair needs, according to Taylor’s email.
“All this to say, [Rodney Thompson Middle School] work has been repeatedly deferred for years due to lack of funding and the systems are clearly telling us they can’t take it anymore,” Taylor wrote. “I want to think that you and the Supervisors understand our situation and how dire it really is, but the nature of the question received leads me to believe that the strategy is really about shifting blame (or trying to shift blame) instead of concentrating energies on actually fixing the problem. When we submit the CIP to the County every October, it has a 3R list attached.
“When something severe happens, and something will happen at this rate, it’s going to be pretty hard for folks to say they did not know.”
