Board pounded on high school cost

County, state officials rip high price during economic downturn

Friday, May 9, 2008

The education establishment fired back, however, with a school board spokeswoman saying the board is working to cooperate with the county budget process, and one school board member warning state and county officials not to leave her board holding the political baggage for budget cuts.

The first blow came Wednesday, when the county commissioners, led by Commissioner Gary V. Hodge (D), scolded the school board for allegedly failing to share information about how the design of the project could be changed to reduce the cost from $97 million to $75 million.

Hodge demanded to know ‘‘what right” the school board had for allegedly withholding the information, saying, ‘‘We have made every effort possible to engage this board on this issue. ... Public funds have been spent on that [redesign] effort, and the results of that effort have not been shared with this board.”

Commissioners’ President F. Wayne Cooper (D) said he and Hodge were scheduled to meet with school board Chairman Donald M. Wade on April 24. Cooper said Wade canceled the meeting.

The commissioners also released a letter — signed by all the commissioners — that was sent to the school board April 29, protesting the cancellation.

‘‘You canceled the April 24 meeting with Commissioners Cooper and Hodge, because you said you could not provide us with the cost-saving measures developed by your staff and architects,” the letter reads. ‘‘We must respectfully advise the Board of Education that the Charles County Commissioners are responsible for school construction and have determined that a [$97 million] high school ... is not affordable in the current economic and fiscal climate.”

‘‘Maybe this discussion will stimulate some response ... in their court,” Commissioner Edith J. Patterson (D) observed.

And the lecturing continued Thursday during a meeting of the board with members of the Charles County delegation to Annapolis, when Del. Murray D. Levy (D-Charles) scolded the school board about its desire for a top-quality high school during an economic downturn.

‘‘The state just raised a billion dollars in taxes and the pot is still shrinking,” Levy warned the board. ‘‘You have some major capital choices to make.”

School board spokeswoman Katie O’Malley-Simpson said that the school board is not unaware of the challenges facing the high school project.

‘‘They are certainly not ignoring it,” O’Malley-Simpson said of the commissioners’ April 29 letter.

She said Wade canceled the April 24 meeting at the request of the full school board, who felt the high school funding discussions should be held ‘‘board-to-board and in the public.”

‘‘They felt that one or two [commissioners] were providing direction to one person on the board,” O’Malley-Simpson explained. She said the school board would discuss cuts to the high school project at its next meeting on Tuesday, which also coincides with the presentation of the school’s proposed operating budget before the commissioners.

Two incidents occurred Thursday that help explain the political posturing occurring in La Plata. The first came in an exchange between Levy and school board member Pamela A. Pedersen.

Responding to a question from Pedersen about why the delegation would support education funding cuts given the income reductions already facing the school board and the projected growth of St. Charles, Levy said that the county was in a ‘‘diminishing scenario” where the question should be, ‘‘How do we do the least amount of damage?”

Levy concluded, ‘‘So Pam, the answer to your question is ...”

‘‘‘Buck up.’ I get it,” Pedersen retorted. Pointing her finger directly at Levy, she made it clear that the school board would not shoulder the political blame for funding cuts, saying, ‘‘Remember that we bucked up.”

‘‘You will not find us disagreeing with you,” Levy responded.

Gov. Martin O’Malley (D) also sought to shore up his political flanks Tuesday with letters to several media outlets. His letter to Charles County claimed, ‘‘Statewide, working together, we have invested $733 million in local school construction and renovation projects in the first two years —more than three times as much as the previous administration.”