The Stafford School Board faces a busy school year full of big projects and decisions. The bulk of the discussion at Tuesday’s board meeting concerned findings from the Capital Improvement Planning (CIP) Advisory Committee.
Chair Bart Randall presented the committee’s annual report, including its involvement at parent-teacher organization meetings and open house events around the county.
“The biggest thing that we talked about [at the meetings] was the projected growth over the next 10 years, the CIP priorities, the annual 3R underfunding, and as you can imagine many were quite surprised at the scope and the depth of the problem,” he said.
Using what Randall termed “industry standards,” the committee determined that the gap between what is funded and what is required for 3R projects over 15 years (2010-2025) is over $123 million.
“Nobody knows the scope of the issue until you pull it out and put it on paper,” Randall said.
The committee’s request to the board includes adding $10 to $15 million to the budget as a Critical Systems line item, increasing 3R funding to $22 million annually and adding a line item to the division budget for a 10-year debt recovery plan of $12.3 million to make up the $123 million gap.
“If you have a credit card problem, to get out of debt, you have to put together a recovery plan. This is the message I think we should send,” he said.
Some school board members hesitated to call the underfunding a financial “debt”.
“To me, it’s a debt that the county owes the board to properly fund and maintain our schools, to keep preventative maintenance rather than corrective,” said Patricia Healy, Rock Hill District representative. “We’re looking at the past and what we need to catch up with, but i think we want to certainly try to work together with the county to come up with a plan so that we can fund these projects that absolutely need to be funded.”
Michael McFarlane from the Gifted Advisory Committee presented recommendations to the board which included strengthening the program for middle schoolers, implementing a summer program, a peer mentoring program and more extracurricular opportunities for gifted students. George Washington District representative Susan Randall added that many of the suggestions would be part of the board’s retreat program discussions.
Public comments were dominated by continued student transportation headaches, with several parents of students in the Commonwealth Governor’s School stepping up to the podium.
Julius Jackson praised the board for the new cell phone policy but bemoaned the continuing problems with bussing.
“It has been an unmitigated disaster,” he said. “Something has to change.”
Another parent reported that his child’s bus pickup shifted from 6:03 a.m. to 5:40 a.m.
“My child has two to three hours of homework every single day, he’s not even started his extracurricular activities yet,” Kevin Fender said. “I just beg somebody to look into this and address it.”
The board unanimously approved a motion to spend $1 million on proposed career and technical education programs. The funds will be used to purchase training equipment for the Engineering Professions and Industries of Construction Center; medical anatomy simulators and classroom updates for the Community Health and Medical Professions Center; mock courtroom equipment for the Leadership, Education and Public Service Center; servers for cybersecurity classroom simulations for the Business, Operations, Systems and Software Center; and flight simulators, aircraft maintenance simulators and drone technology equipment for the Aviation and Integrated Management Center.
The adoption of FY2026 budget priorities also passed unanimously.
Branch Builds, Inc., was awarded a contract of $43.9 million for the construction of elementary school No. 19. The school is being built next to the Brooke Point High School campus and has a designed capacity of 1,070 students.
“We did come in well under budget,” Acting Superintendent Chris R. Fulmer said. “That’s three big projects in a row that have come in significantly under budget, so that’s setting us up for doing more projects hopefully.”
A profile for a new superintendent of schools compiled by JG Consulting was approved and the position is now posted on its website. Applications will be accepted through mid-October and a candidate shall be selected by the end of the month.
