With needs growing and funding not keeping pace, the Bedford County School Board could attempt to secure $1.4 million from the recent Jefferson Forest High School renovation for future maintenance projects.
The school system would need approval from the county board of supervisors to move the money, along with accumulated interest to the school maintenance project fund, currently sitting at close to $1 million.
The school board discussed the idea Thursday and is set to vote on it at a Feb. 23 meeting.
Board member Gary Hostutler, who serves on a committee overseeing maintenance, said a lot of needs were put on hold in recent years due to spending cutbacks. He mentioned boilers, roofs and chillers as examples the long list that needs to be addressed, he said.
“It would all be long-term projects,” Hostutler said. “We’ve been sitting on it for three years now and there’s a long list of projects we deferred.”
The nearly $40 million JF renovation was completed for less than what the county borrowed and the school board is paying the debt service. The infuse of cash could alleviate pressures of funding necessary projects in the 2013 fiscal budget, starting July 1, board member Julie Bennington said.
“We see it as a way to help us get through the next year,” Superintendent Doug Schuch said.
The division also has a leftover balance of just more than $450,000 from the 2010-11 budget. The school board plans to ask the supervisors to authorize using the money for the textbook component of the budget school officials say has been underfunded. The request is contingent on the JF money and also is set to go before a board vote on Feb. 23.
School officials are planning the new budget, set to be unveiled next month. Chief Financial Officer Randy Hagler said a portion of a $2 million federal jobs bill that has been used to offset cuts in the current budget could be set aside for the next fiscal year to help alleviate pressures facing the division.
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