Scaling back?
New committee may look at ways to cut school construction costs
By Greg Pearson STAFF WRITER

The school system is currently building an elementary and a middle school in the Bermuda District (above) along with two more new schools in the Matoaca District.

With the rising cost of the replacement for Clover Hill High School on everyone's mind, the county school board met last week in a work session to discuss design standards for a new high school in eastern Chesterfield that's expected to be built around 2012.

School board members are considering forming a committee comprised of school staff, an outside consultant and possibly a county supervisor to review design standards for new schools, which largely determine general construction costs. The process could take a year.

The school system has been criticized because the Clover Hill replacement, which goes out for bid this June, could cost $92 million. A referendum in November 2004 projected a cost of $55 million. Last month, county supervisors' Chairman Kelly Miller and County Administrator Lane Ramsey asked Superintendent Marcus Newsome to consider scaling back the replacement school on Genito Road to control costs.

During the work session last week, Kathy Kitchen, assistant superintendent for business and finance, projected an additional $18 million is needed to build and renovate the schools approved by the voters in the 2004 referendum. The school system will most likely borrow the money from the Virginia School Public Authority at favorable rates because of the county's high bond rating.

Many citizens are questioning school construction costs - particularly for high schools. Not including the cost of land, Kitchen estimated the current costs of building a high school at $58-$65 million, $28 million for a middle school and $15 million for an elementary school.

The typical high school has 75-100 acres, 50-60 acres for a middle school and 20-30 acres for an elementary school. The Clover Hill replacement high school site is 81 acres. The largest high school site - 146 acres at Matoaca High School - includes acreage for a wastewater treatment plant that needed to be built.

"We're fairly constrained by the state on our building process," said Marshall Trammell Jr., school board representative for the Bermuda District. The state sets specifications on classrooms, cafeterias, auditoriums, gymnasiums and locker rooms.

Chesterfield could use cheaper building materials like sheetrock for classroom walls, but "then our schools wouldn't last 50 years," argued Midlothian School Board member Jim Schroeder.

"Schools are much different today," Schroeder continued. They cost more because schools have to educate children for the jobs of tomorrow, and those differences - like technology - cost more, he said.

Earlier, school board members also acknowledged that parents expect more of public education, driving up school costs. Parents of children who attend older schools want those schools to be upgraded so they are competitive with newer schools.

With Chesterfield schools adding more than 1,000 students each fall, there are limited options to deal with crowded classrooms. They include moving special schools - like gifted and English as a Second Language programming - to less crowded schools. But usually the choice is to add classroom trailers. School officials insist there is no difference in the quality of education in a portable classroom versus a permanent building, but some parents believe otherwise.