SNOW HILL– A new committee will review public school construction funding in Worcester County.
The Worcester County Commissioners this week voted 6-1 to create a committee to consider development of a policy on school construction funding. According to county staff, this is an ideal time for the issue to be considered because a new school is being planned in Berlin.
“Given the Buckingham project is in its early stages this is an opportune time for a discussion of this nature,” said Chief Administrative Officer Weston Young.
Young told the commissioners this week that the state provides a 50-50 match for school construction up to a certain gross square footage that’s based on enrollment. He said any square footage beyond the formulated footprint would have to be funded locally. Currently, there are four schools, including Buckingham, in the governor’s budget, Young said. He explained that all four are above the state calculated size, which means there will be a portion of each facility that will be funded locally.
“With the upcoming Buckingham Elementary School replacement project, we wanted to facilitate a conversation with the group setting a policy, something that would set expectations for future school construction,” Young said.
Commissioner Chip Bertino said he’d like to see a committee formed to evaluate what funding the county would allocate for school construction moving forward. He said the committee could be made up of Young as well as the county’s deputy chief administrator, procurement officer and engineer as well as a representative of the Worcester County Board of Education. Commissioner Jim Bunting made a motion to create the committee and have it report back by the commissioners’ second meeting in August.
“I think we need to take a close look at this,” he said.
The commissioners voted 6-1, with Commissioner Joe Mitrecic opposed, to establish the committee.
After the meeting, Mitrecic said he’d objected to the proposal because it was redundant, as there is already a Buckingham construction committee made up of commissioners, community members, school system officials and builders, and because he felt there wasn’t enough school system representation on it.
“If we’re going to have a committee it should have equal parts,” he said.
Annette Wallace, the school system’s chief safety and academic officer for grades 9-12, said she was surprised to hear about the committee.
“It’s definitely something new,” she said. “I think it’s prudent of all of us to be looking into being more fiscally responsible about everything we’re doing.”
She pointed out that the membership of the committee was entirely county representatives other than the space for one school system representative.
“Our board, our governing body, it didn’t sound like was a part of that at all,” she said. “That’s just interesting, a lot to process and work through. The more voices at the table the better but certainly I want our elected board to be able to serve their duty and do their due diligence as well being part of that committee. I will be in touch with the commissioners and Mr. Young and hopefully have maybe a better balance.”
As far as the new committee and the effect it will have on a new Buckingham Elementary, Bertino said in an interview Wednesday that he expected it to make construction of the new Berlin school, and other schools in the future, more efficient.
“I think it’s fiscally responsible so that expectations aren’t above what reality can pay for,” he said. “When an individual is building a house, they know what their budget is and plan accordingly. My belief is taxpayer money should be handled the same way. Let’s focus on our needs and plan accordingly.”