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As an elected official charged with being a good steward of the taxpayers dollars, this did give me heartburn. The City and School Board worked together for the last three schools that were built by a Joint Committee that met weekly. All major final decisions were signed off by the School Board. This resolution would mean that duplicate departments for procurement and project managers would need to be built and funded to manage the construction. This decision would delay the timeline of a new GWHS because departments would need to be recruited for and hired. In May 2021, I along with council leadership co-authored a letter to propose the establishment of another joint City-RPS team that would address the concerns raised by the majority of the School Board without requiring that RPS incur the additional time, cost, and administrative burden of assuming sole responsibility for school modernization while also supporting the district's recovery from the pandemic. The School Board did not respond.
In July 2021, the school board held a special meeting at GWHS to receive public comment on the "Schools Build Schools" with dozens of speakers providing hours of public comment. No one supported the resolution. The next week at a regularly scheduled school board meeting they voted to move forward with their own Request for Proposal (RFP) at a 1,600 student capacity instead of the city's RFP that called for 2,000 student capacity to accommodate the growing southside. Again, I co-authored another letter hoping we could keep GWHS on track for a Fall 2024 opening by having the RPS use city staff while they were trying to fill positions. They declined.
In October 2021, it was realized that the funding mentioned above needed to be transferred if schools were building schools. The Mayor introduced the ordinance in November 2021 but requested evidence and documentation to support a smaller school of 1,600 students. When it came to City Council on December 13, 2021 for the first time, neither the Mayor nor City Council had received answers to questions posed by the community, city, and council to justify a smaller high school. The ordinance was then heard at my Education and Human Services committee meeting on Thursday, February 10, 2022. We had not received clear answers to the questions posed and it was forwarded to a special in-person meeting that was supposed to occur later that month.
Last week, School Board and City Council met to try and find a compromise. City Council proposed building a 1,800 seat school instead of 2,000 seat school. gree to save the taxpayers money now and in the future with a correctly sized school for a growing southside. However, last week’s meeting after realizing the majority of the school board refusal to compromise with using city staff or adjusting the capacity to 1,800 students, I voted to move it forward in hopes of a continued conversation after the RFP was released. Sadly, the motion to move forward at the meeting failed due to vote count and lingering concerns.
The School Board has cited concerns that the city overpaid for the last three schools. They cite “guestimated” dollar figures that were generated 6-8 years before the schools were actually put out to contract and built. Of course, the building costs were more 6-8 years later. As we wait today, the cost of a new GWHS is getting more expensive.
Reviewing the Virginia Department of Education data on the unit cost metrics you can see the cost of schools through the Commonwealth. Recently, New Kent County contracted to build a school similar to the same RRMM Architects prototype design as Cardinal Elementary School. You can see the cost per square foot and pupil are in line.
