Letter to the Editor: Says all dollars are not created equally

The recent article, ‘Attention Turning from Historic School to New Elementary’, creates the impression that for a few million dollars more a new elementary school could be built with twice the capacity of the Historic School. The figures cited are $8.5 million planned for the Historic School which would provide 40,000 square feet and a new school being built in Louisia County with 86,000 square feet only costs $11.2 million.

On the surface it would appear that New Kent could build a new school for less than $3 million more than completing the Historic School project.

But, appearances can be deceiving. The cost figure for the Historic School, while perhaps not rock solid, is likely to be fairly firm because of work that has already been completed and the fact that additional work is to an existing structure. The cost for the Louisa school is reported to be “total cost” but is that just construction or does it include land acquisition, engineering, and architectural costs? Even if “total cost” means total cost, there is no guarantee that a new elementary school here would be built for that amount.

The new high school was originally budgeted for about $27 million. The final cost was around $50 million. The county should not ignore that reality in going forward. Affluent counties like Chesterfield or Fairfax County might be able to afford cost overruns to build Cadillac schools; New Kent can’t and doesn’t need to. The equivalent of a Ford F-150 would serve our needs very well.

The historic school would house about 450 students, which is within the school board’s estimated need for the foreseeable future. How long would it take the county’s elementary school population to grow to the point that a 790 student capacity would be needed?

Fiscal responsibility and the county’s economic realities argue for a school that meets its basic educational needs and not more. Paying for capacity that might not be needed for a decade or more ignores the time value of money and the alternative uses of the incremental $3 million.

Without greater fiscal discipline budgets and taxes will just continue to increase. Just say no!

Bill O’Keefe
Providence Forge