Shawn Kelley was a bit apprehensive.
The Caroline County School Board member witnessed Superintendent Sarah Calveric tussle with the county’s board of supervisors over the release of grant funds that required no local match.
He also learned Monday night that the supervisors previously denied sending a letter of support to funders for the school division to receive another grant.
So, when it came to adopting a resolution requesting that the supervisors place a referendum on the ballot for the upcoming election that would allow voters to decide on a 1% sales tax to go toward school capital projects, Kelley wanted to be as specific as possible.
He insisted on requesting that the supervisors take up the vote at a joint July 29 meeting, so that the referendum could move forward to the Caroline County Circuit Court and meet the Aug. 14 deadline to be included on the ballot. When that effort of attaching an exact date to the resolution was rebuffed as being too “granular,” Kelley and the board voted unanimously to add a cover letter to the resolution laying out the tight timeline with hopes that it would create a sense of urgency for the supervisors.
“We are working with a duly elected body that, just as evidenced tonight, has turned down money before,” Kelley said. “I’m not very comfortable … I feel like if we don’t at least mention that this has to be done prior to their August meeting, then it won’t be on the November ballot. It’ll be, ‘We’ll just take this up later. We’ll look at this later,’ and then it just keeps kicking the can down the road.”
Caroline is attempting to take advantage of a bill that the General Assembly passed this year and Gov. Abigail Spanberger signed into law that allows localities to place a referendum for a 1% sales tax for the purpose of school construction and renovations on the ballot for voters to decide. If approved, the tax could provide up to $5 million in funding per year, Calveric said.
State Del. Nicole Cole (D-Spotsylvania), who represents a large portion of the county in the General Assembly, spoke during citizen comments and explained the impact the bill could have on the county’s school division.
“I want to put it on the public record that the legislature passed the budget bill item for the 1% sales and use tax for the board of supervisors, in the different districts or different counties can approve that to be on the ballot this fall,” Cole said. “[There are] significant needs in construction and maintenance for Caroline County Public Schools to be able to serve our kids in less-crowded classes, to make sure there’s program capacity, so that our kids can be the most successful in graduating out of schools.”
Caroline resident JD Young, who represents the Reedy Church District on the county’s planning commission, spoke as well. Spanberger recently appointed Young to the State Commission on School Construction and Modernization.
Young said he aims to sit down with school officials to determine the holdup in constructing new schools to alleviate overcrowding in the division, particularly at the elementary level.
“I’m extremely concerned about why we can’t get what we need here in the county, as far as new schools, renovated schools, space, all the things that are necessary,” Young said. “So, with me being in that position, I need to sit with you all as much as possible to figure out where the stop is, where the problem is, so we can mitigate those issues and continue to move this county forward.”
During Monday’s meeting, the school board also voted to send a letter to the supervisors requesting support for School Construction Assistance Program grant funds.
A letter from a school division’s appropriating body stating that it will maintain or increase the percentage of local funds to the schools throughout the duration of project financing is critical, said Marcia Stevens, CCPS’ Chief Operations Officer.
Stevens noted that the letter awards points to move the district up in rankings for consideration to receive the grant. The division was two points short of the grant in its most recent attempt, and the letter from the supervisors would be worth five points. The grant could net as much as $9.5 million towards a new elementary school at its previously projected cost of $47 million, Stevens said.
JoWanda Rollins-Fells, who represents the Reedy Church District on the school board, was incredulous that there’s even a possibility the supervisors would decline to provide the letter of support, but that was the case in previous years, Stevens said.
“This makes no sense to me from a governance standpoint, that there are grant funds available, when we know a huge barrier for us, being in a rural environment, is funding,” Rollins-Fells said … “If having a letter from our appropriating body stating that, at bare minimum, we will be level-funded [helps], then we need to do our due diligence to ask.”
Rollins’ motion to request the letter from the supervisors passed unanimously. The two boards meet jointly on July 29. The next board of supervisors meeting is scheduled for Aug. 11.
