Rising fuel costs plaguing Charles City’s school system

Rising fuel costs are adversely affecting businesses and consumers, and local school systems are no different. Charles City County school officials have learned money budgeted for fuel for the current fiscal year is nearly exhausted.

Through the first eight months of the fiscal year, schools have spent almost $93,000 of just over $97,000 tabbed for fuel in this year’s budget, Melvin Robertson, who oversees the school’s transportation department, told School Board members during their April 15 meeting.

And if the current trend of price increases continues through the end of the fiscal year on June 30, schools could be paying between $40,000 and $50,000 extra for fuel, Robertson added.

“I was afraid of this,” board chairman Barbara Crawley said.

Robertson said almost all state school districts are in the same predicament as Charles City. Some, he said, exceeded fuel budget amounts months ago. The problem, he added, is difficulty in predicting what fuel prices will do in a volatile economy.

“It’s like rolling the dice,” he told board members.

“We’re doing everything we can to save fuel and money and wear and tear on our expensive vehicles,” he said.

In other matters last week, board members learned that the county’s middle school is taking strides toward removing the conditional accreditation label applied by the state in the aftermath of last year’s Standards of Learning test results. The middle school received a warning in math.

During the current school year, a Governor’s Committee was formed and has been meeting monthly to assess needs and make recommendations at the school, Superintendent Janet Crawley told the board.

In December, a four-person team from the state Department of Education visited the school, commending school personnel for their improvement work and making further recommendations. Programs have been put in place as a result of those recommendations, Crawley said.

An auditor has been appointed to monitor the middle school’s effort and a “coach” is working with staff to improve literacy and math instruction, she said. An “algebra readiness diagnostic test” is being given to students throughout the school year, she added.

Reginald Underwood, the school system’s assistant superintendent for instruction, reported that middle school teachers are “working diligently” and students are “making great strides” toward improvement.

“We’re looking for great things when SOL testing begins in May,” he told the board.

In another matter, Robertson told the board that the county is not issuing a permanent certificate of occupancy for the schools’ new bus maintenance garage until all problems associated with erosion around the building are corrected.

Schools are embroiled in a dispute with the construction company, Quinton-based Grand Metro Builders, over whose responsibility it is to get grass growing on bare spots and compacting soil outside the building so that parking lot paving can take place at the site, a few hundred yards north of the middle school on Route 155.

The builders claim responsibility falls to the school system, but the project’s architect says the job belongs to Grand Metro, Robertson said.

A county building official has said a $3,500 insurance bond would solve the problem, but the builders do not want to go that route, Robertson told the board.

Also, board members agreed to a $16,000 change order for work at the Route 155 entrance to the bus garage. The extra money is needed so that the entrance can be built to VDOT standards, Robertson said.