School board set to keep western PW school development priority
By Dan Roem
Whether it’s priority spending on some overdue projects or western Prince William County simply getting its dues, the school system in the western half of the county is set to win out when the school board votes on its Capital Improvements Projects budget March 24. All new school funding will be directed toward western Prince William schools while the one school slated for renewal – Pennington School -- is based in Manassas. “That just happens to be where the need is greatest,” said School Board member Gil Trenum, who represents Brentsville District. All three of the new schools slated to come on line between 2011 and 2012 are within Trenum’s district. According to David Cline, the associate superintendent for finance and support service for Prince William County Schools, the overcrowding at local elementary and middle schools forced the county to keep construction of the new schools on line, even in tough economic times. “We really don’t have a choice,” said Cline. “Money is tight, (but) we have got to keep those buildings on track.” Regarding the cash flow situation, he explained that normally the county would dish out an extra $27-28 million for repairs and renovations for schools across the county. This budget, however, calls for $6 million worth of proffer money to go toward infrastructure improvements and that’s it as the school board still needs to grapple with a $79 million shortfall. Pennington is the majority recipient of the proffer cash, though $200,000 is slated to go toward Title IX improvements for facilities and ball fields to make sure girls and boys teams are playing on equal grounds.Given that boundaries lines for Patriot High School are already drawn, the major work ahead will be on figuring out which students go to T. Clay Wood Elementary School right next store to Patriot. Both schools are set to open in 2011. Boundary line work will need to begin soon too for the middle school at Silver Lake before it comes online in Haymarket in 2012. The county already released bidding contracts for potential construction crews. “What we found is that one of the few silver linings with the economy right now (is) right now the bids came in extremely low,” said Trenum. He explained that the school board budgeted somewhere around $48 million for the new middle school and elementary school. However, the combined bids are coming in closer to $30 million. What that means is there is almost enough money left over for the county to afford another elementary school. The next one in line would be along the Linton Hall Road corridor near the Bridlewood subdivision and could relieve Cedar Point, Glenkirk, Bristow Run and Victory. Nokesville Elementary School, meanwhile, is still online for an expansion in 2012. Even though the rate of expansion of Prince William County is not as high as it was 10 years ago, county officials still project 3,500 additional kids will be coming into the school system next year. For every 1,000 students, the county projects 700 will need busing. There is a domino effect from there as that then requires the purchase of extra buses, which increases the need for drivers, and increases the need for mechanics. For every 25 students, there needs to be a new classroom and another teacher. “If I’ve got an extra 1,000 students, that’s the equivalent of an extra elementary school,” said Cline. Though the county cannot afford to fast track more CIP projects in western Prince William, and schools like Glenkirk are set to receive more trailers next year, Trenum said he understands why the Board of County Supervisors is not doling out more cash to education. “It's tough everywhere right now,” said Trenum. “Unfortunately, in some people's eyes, that includes the school system too.”