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School Board tackles range of projects
At its Monday night meeting, the Clarke County School Board concentrated on some basic A-B-Cs, reviewing a wide swath of issues from academic changes to budget updates to construction projects.The board began the process of scaling back some programs and, with input from parent-teacher-citizen committees, restructuring others, especially ones for students deemed to be gifted and talented.
The early childhood education program, which currently serves disadvantaged and at-risk as well as mainstream children, will be open only to those determined to be at-risk next year, Chairman Robina Rich Bouffault (White Post District) said.
The decision was necessary to comply with state requirements to receive funding for the program, she said. Next year, the school system expects to receive only $165,000 for disadvantaged and at-risk children – a drop from the current $181,000 level, she added.
And the board asked Acting Superintendent John Taylor to do more work on his proposal to use federal low-income guidelines in deciding which students could qualify for help in paying to take the Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate tests.
Taylor suggested the federal Agriculture Department’s free and reduced-lunch eligibility scale would be “relatively fair,” coupled with a provision allowing students for whom the cost would be a financial burden to ask for assistance. Board member Jennifer Welliver (Berryville District) described the USDA figures as a starting point, adding she hopes assistance can be based on the county’s median household income.
Bouffault also asked the board’s Finance Committee to meet once again this Friday at 1 p.m. to review budget information from county supervisors to determine whether any additional school cuts might be needed.
She told school officials that Board of Supervisors Chairman John Staelin (D-Millwood/Pine Grove) has told her that the county budget could have as much as half a million fewer dollars than had been anticipated.
School officials do not yet know what – if anything – that could mean for their budget, Bouffault said.
And board members agreed to spend $1,590 to get digital computer files specifying architectural design details for a new high school and the site plan for a 71-acre site for it just south of the existing school on Westwood Road that the Salvation Army has proposed to donate. These will allow the board to get a more precise idea of what building a school on that site could cost, Bouffault said.
Meanwhile, the board still expects to have by early May a final report from Fairfax-based engineering firm Gannett Fleming on its feasibility study of that site as well as three others under consideration: land behind the existing school, a 40-acre tract owned by Beverley Byrd, Jr., across Westwood Road from the school, and at least 40 acres offered by the Ketoctin Land Company next to Battlefield Estates in Berryville.
After its heating and air conditioning units receive sufficient power, the new D.G. Cooley Elementary School gymnasium is expected to open during the week of April 14-18, Business Director Ed Breslauer also told the board.
Contact the reporter at rmarlow@timespapers.com
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