Supervisors take first step toward consolidation

The Bland County Board of Supervisors avoided being a millstone around the neck of school consolidation last week as it approved the School Board’s request to seek loans to build a new K-12 school in Bastian.
While the latest go-round in the decades-long debate over building a new school kept the most recent construction proposal on track for now, discussion at the meeting – and one “no” vote – gave an early reminder that significant hurdles still remain before any student trots into Bland County Combined School.
A rejection of the School Board’s request Dec. 29 could have derailed the pursuit of a K-12 school as the supervisors had to give their approval before the School Board could apply to borrow any money.
As the vote turned out, though, the supervisors’ 3-1 approval to move forward with the project merely rubber-stamped the School Board’s decision at its own meeting earlier in the month.
By their votes, the two governing bodies approved the formal pursuit of a K-12 school in Bastian and the placement of the county on a waiting list for two $7.5 million Literary Loans from the Virginia Department of Education.
At this point, no financial figures, architectural blueprints or even a precise location for the proposed new school have been set in stone. The county also will be able to turn down the loan money even if its application is approved.
Nevertheless, the groups’ actions last month signal the most concerted effort in years at actually breaking ground on a new school.
And despite much remaining work before construction could actually begin, Superintendent Don Hodock said he’ll continue to push for moving the project along as quickly as possible in the hopes of starting the 2011-12 school year in a new building.
“That’s probably ambitious and very much wishful thinking, but I think it could happen,” Hodock said in an interview after the supervisors’ vote last week.
Before the supervisors made their decision, School Board Chairman Anthony Kennedy and Hodock presented the governing body with the School Board’s plans.
Kennedy read a prepared statement similar to the one Hodock shared at the December School Board meeting. The chairman emphasized that construction costs are at their lowest levels in years as he asked the supervisors to allow school officials to zero in on plans for a K-12 school.
“I believe this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for Bland County,” Kennedy said.
Along with the fact that the issue of building a new school has already been studied and debated for decades, Hodock said the relatively low cost of building materials available right now adds additional urgency to starting construction work sooner rather than later.
“To take advantage of this, we need to move fairly swiftly,” Hodock said.
While the School Board got the result it was hoping for last week, it only took seconds after Kennedy finished reading his statement for the first significant roadblock to a K-12 school to present itself.
Sharon District representative Henry Blessing announced that he had his own statement to read and immediately stated that he felt like building a K-12 school would cripple the county financially.
“At the present, I don’t think we can afford to build a K-12,” he said.
“That would pretty well tie up the Board of Supervisors’ plans for any other projects for the next 20 years,” Blessing added later, ticking off new water lines and a sewer system for Bland as projects that would likely fall by the wayside.
Kennedy, though, protested that no cost figures have been finalized yet as Blessing began naming specific amounts that tax rates could increase if a K-12 school is built.
At the School Board’s December meeting, Hodock said a new K-12 school would likely cost between $18 and $20 million.
In the interview after the supervisors’ meeting, Hodock said costs could range as broadly as from $14 million to $30 million, depending on what features are included in the new building.
“It’s all over the place,” he said, going on to add that the School Board is seeking a “functional” building, not an ostentatious or ornate structure.
Blessing also said he’s concerned that a single school for the entire county would damage the sense of community in Bland and Rocky Gap.
Instead of a K-12 school, Blessing proposed that the county should seek to build a new high school and keep the Bland and Rocky Gap campuses active as solely elementary facilities.
“In closing, I’m your guy for a new high school, but as a Board of Supervisors member I can’t vote for a new K-12,” he said.
Keeping elementary schools open in Bland and Rocky Gap, however, would cause the county to lose some of the assumed upkeep and maintenance savings that operating a single school would provide, which is one of the School Board’s major selling points for the K-12 concept.
When asked after the meeting which was the more important reason for his opposition to a K-12 school – potential cost or the possible loss of community in Bland and Rocky Gap – Blessing said both are equally significant factors.
When the time came for Board of Supervisors Chairman John Thompson to ask for a motion to vote on the loan applications, Blessing seconded Jason Ramsey’s motion to proceed, but then cast a “no” vote against the proposal.
Thompson, Ramsey and Karen Hodock – Superintendent Hodock’s wife – all voted in favor of pursing the loans and a K-12 school.
When asked after the meeting if she plans to continue to vote on school consolidation issues, Karen Hodock said she believes her Rocky Gap constituents need representation in the debate. She added, however, that she will be consulting with County Attorney Paul Cassell about continuing to vote if the project moves forward – and money is potentially appropriated.
If Cassell advises her that it would be a conflict of interest to vote on her husband’s proposals, Hodock said she would abstain from future school votes.
Whether Hodock continues to vote in favor of a new school or abstains, all it would take for the project to be stopped would be either Ramsey or Nick Asbury, who took over as the new Seddon District supervisor on Jan. 1, to join Blessing in voting against additional proposals.
With a four-person board, a 2-2 tie vote goes to the “no’s.” Expanding the board to add a fifth representative as an at-large member in time for the 2009 election was discussed last year, but the idea was dropped when the board got word that it couldn’t have the paperwork filed in time for a new race to appear on the November ballot.
Asbury attended last week’s meeting and, in an interview afterward, he said he is in favor of the K-12 concept, but wants to make sure the county can afford the project.
With submitting the loan applications now approved, Don Hodock said he hopes the School Board will feel confident enough that the project is moving forward to secure the additional land that is needed to have space to construct a K-12 school.
“The next step will be to try to purchase property,” the superintendent said.
Hodock said the School Board has been reluctant in recent months to buy more land without a signal that a K-12 school can become a reality.
Swope Construction, which has been helping Hodock develop some of his preliminary estimates for costs for a new school, is also likely to make a presentation to the School Board at its January meeting.


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