Bedford city's planned reversion could affect school improvements

BEDFORD — As the city of Bedford considers a reversion to town status, Bedford County supervisors and school officials met Thursday to discuss the potential impact on the schools’ facility planning in upcoming years.

Supervisors and the Bedford County School Board met for about two hours in closed session Thursday after Superintendent Douglas Schuch presented a draft of the division’s facility plan that proposes $55.6 million in changes that would affect four schools. Both bodies immediately adjourned after the session ended without publicly debating the plan.

The draft plan proposes constructing a new Bedford Middle School at a location not yet determined that would cost nearly $30 million and take three years to complete. Other proposals include renovating and expanding Bedford Elementary School at nearly $5 million, expanding Forest Middle School at $14.2 million and renovating and reshaping the Bedford Primary School facility at $6.8 million.

Schuch said the projects have not been prioritized yet and the division hopes to adopt a version of the plan ahead of the upcoming 2010-11 budget. The school board would revisit it annually, he said.

Advantages to the plan would include maximizing costs and accommodating Bedford-area students within a standard grade level configuration, Schuch said. He also said Bedford Primary’s location provides “swing space” that could serve students during construction work.
“That’s a great thing to have in your arsenal,” Schuch said.

He said a disadvantage would be the accumulation of more debt service to fund the investment. Without any new borrowing, he said the schools’ debt service is scheduled to annually decrese over the next decade.

Debt service for the current year is $7.8 million, he said.

Two of the schools in the proposal are city-owned, which would mean the county would take ownership if reversion takes place. School Board Chairman Gary Hostutler and Board of Supervisors Chairman John Sharp each said reversion was the only topic of the closed session.

Hostutler said the schools are trying to get on the county’s five-year plan for capital improvements.

He said school leaders are very concerned with pending state cuts to education and how that could affect possibly taking on future debt service.

“A lot of this will depend on state funding,” Hostutler said. “We’re certainly very nervous.”

Sharp said reversion is “clearly a piece of a puzzle” related to school needs. The city hasn’t officially started the process to become a town and is only studying the matter — a reversion would mean the city would give up its independent status to join the county.

“Assuming reversion goes forward, more will come to light,” said Sharp, who said it was “premature” to comment on some aspects of the schools’ plan.

“It seems like they obviously well thought out what they need to do,” he said of the proposals. “The trick is where do you find revenue? That’s the big question.”