Tension lay thickly over the meeting room at this week’s face-off between the Charles County Board of Education and the county Board of Commissioners. It emanated from the members of the BoE who came prepared for battle. Do or die, they were determined to secure a construction funding guarantee for the new St. Charles high school so the school can open in June 2011 whether or not the financially strapped State comes through with its portion of the funding in time.
The problem is that a financially strapped State government also means a County government with a tighter budget. And, the Board of Commissioners are not willing to commit the equivalent of 1/3 their annual budget to one construction project. The general consensus of the Board by the end of the BoE’s prepared statements was that no matter the singular importance of education, it isn’t fiscally possible for the Board to commit that much money to the BoE.
“If the State doesn’t come forward [with its share], the County is left funding a $97 million school. We cannot afford that,” Board of Commissioners President Wayne Cooper (D-at large) told the school board.
One month ago the BoE appealed to the state Board of Public Works to include the new high school in its list of projects this year. The BPW usually hands down its decisions before the end of the General Assembly’s legislative session, so the school board expects to have word from the state any day now.
However, Commissioner Gary Hodge (D-district 4) said he had “talked with several senior officials in Annapolis and all of them indicated a lack of confidence that this school will be approved [for funds this year].”
Although each of the commissioners expressed belief in the necessity of constructing more schools to keep up with the county’s population growth, they could not guarantee the school board could build the school as it’s currently planned.
Commissioner Reuben Collins II (D-district 3) told the BoE that they made a compelling argument for building the new school, but that he didn’t see how the county could fund it with other county issues also facing economic uncertainty.
“The fundamental issue is allocation of resources,” said Hodge. “I’m not convinced that we can put [nearly] $100 million into a new school and adequately fulfill our obligations to the other 26,000 students [in the county].”
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