A lack of trust between the Caroline County Board of Supervisors and the school board is at the heart of a power struggle regarding facility concerns in the county.
That sentiment was revealed during a joint meeting on Tuesday in which the supervisors concluded with a 4-2 vote to permit “learning cottages” or trailers at Bowling Green Elementary School, add four to six classrooms and a gymnasium to BGE (pending school board approval) and tack on renovations at Madison Elementary School to an existing Request for Proposal.
The supervisors also reiterated their intention to fund a fourth elementary school in the county, but the timeline remains unclear.
School board member JoWanda Rollins-Fells of the Reedy Church District acknowledged that one reason she and her peers were hesitant to allow additions to BGE is a fear that the extra space would encourage the supervisors to back out of their pledge to build a new school.
“Dr. Rollins-Fells hit a point — the school board doesn’t think we want to build an elementary school,” said Supervisor Reginald Underwood, also of the Reedy Church District. “Our board is committed, saying, ‘We know we’re going to need a new elementary school.’ I don’t think anybody says ‘no.’ The issue for me is the timeframe. It’s impossible to do it in three years. The funding will not be there. We can talk about it, but realistically, we can’t do that.”
Underwood and supervisors Floyd Thomas (Mattaponi District) and Jeff Sili (Bowling Green District) pushed for additional space at BGE, including a gymnasium (The class is currently taught in the nearby community center).
Superintendent Sarah Calveric and the school board sought trailers to be added to ease overcrowding and expressed concern that if BGE expanded it could house 1,000 students, which they believe, based on research, is too large for an elementary school.
“I will not vote to put trailers on any campus in Caroline County,” Underwood said. “I won’t do it.”
After the joint meeting concluded, the supervisors held their regular meeting. School Board Chair Calvin Taylor was in attendance and agreed to allow the supervisors to add on to BGE, although his words were nonbinding. The school board will meet again in two weeks and can vote to allow the renovation.
“We have no intentions of coming back and saying, ‘We’ve got the trailers, now you can’t add the rooms,'” Taylor said. “That would just be pure stupid.”
Sili, however, emphasized that the supervisors should not move forward with any vote until they have a motion in writing from the school board to allow the additions to BGE and Madison. He and Underwood voted against the motion, but Sili said he did so because he did not agree with the process of voting for the renovations prior to school board approval.
“It hurts me that past history has created this bit of distrust, and it puts me on sort of a seesaw ride,” Board of Supervisors Chair Nancy Long said. “Yeah, you want to trust it’s going to happen, but history says [otherwise].”
Thomas said he wanted to extend a peace offering to the school board, so he supported its desire for trailers and said he was willing to trust it would do what Taylor promised and allow the BGE and Madison additions.
“We’re at an impasse because it appears, it’s time to be frank and honest about it, it appears there’s not a lot of trust in a new school being built,” Thomas said … “So, I’m going to extend my olive branch and say, ‘I believe the school board is going to do what [Taylor] just said.”
The school board presented three options for purchasing trailers for BGE. To purchase one building that includes six classrooms, a hallway, two communal restrooms, and two ramps costs $1.1 million. To lease with the option to buy would cost $1.2 million ($17,728 per month), and a traditional lease would cost $1 million ($14,445 per month).
Infrastructure in the unit includes a fire alarm, intercom, water/sewer, technology, fencing, a security system, and access control.
The supervisors voted to allow the school board to use $994,607 in funds remaining from fiscal year 2024 to put toward the purchase.
Calveric said the trailers are an “immediate bridge plan” for BGE and the boards would have to come together in the fall to address overcrowding at Lewis and Clark Elementary in Ladysmith.
The school board urged the supervisors to vote on allowing them to use the leftover funds Tuesday so the trailers can be installed at BGE by the start of the 2025-26 school year.
