School board members and school division staff once again discussed the problem of what to do about the county’s middle schools at the board’s work session Monday night. The discussion was informed by a meeting the week before that included two members of the board of supervisors.
Supervisors Holder Trumbo (Scott District) and Christopher Granger (Center District), said they wanted to be sure that when all was said and done, three years from now, that schools would not be operating at capacity. And they reminded the school board that it was in everyone’s interest to keep the cost as low as possible while still accomplishing their goals.
At the work session Feb. 3, school board chairman Duke Bland (Marshall District) said, “Supervisors are not in business to tell us how to build schools. They are our funding agent. We need to come up with a good plan and ask supervisors, ‘Are you going to fund this or not?’”
In moving toward that plan, Monday evening started with four options on the table but ended with only two.
Cedar Lee Middle School in Bealeton is being renovated and expanded by 258 seats, to make room for students who live close to Cedar Lee but currently attend Taylor Middle School in Warrenton. The school board has purchased land next to the school to make room for expansion and is planning to make a final decision on a contractor on Feb. 6, according to board member Donna Grove (Cedar Run District). “We’re very close,” she said.
The Cedar Lee project is slated to cost about $17.5 million.
The school board agreed Monday to pursue the two of four options that would include expansion at Auburn Middle School – of up to 300 seats – to move students who live nearer to Auburn than their current Warrenton schools. Since Auburn was originally built with expansion in mind, school board members said this would be a relatively inexpensive way to add seats to the eastern end of the county and reduce the Center District middle school population. The Auburn project could run concurrently with the Cedar Lee construction; its estimated cost would be about $10 million.
“Looking at the cost per seat, adding seats at Auburn really makes sense,” said Superintendent of Schools David Jeck.
School board members said that expansions at Cedar Lee and Auburn would allow the school division to reduce the number of middle-schoolers in Warrenton, which is currently about 900. Once this is accomplished, the Warrenton students could be consolidated into either Warrenton Middle (option 3) or Taylor Middle (option 4). The resulting unoccupied building would be renovated and possibly expanded.
According to documents referenced at the work session, the price tag for renovating Warrenton Middle School is slightly lower, at $25.6 million; that cost estimate does not include new road infrastructure that would be necessary if seats were added to the school. That price tag was estimated at $600,00 to $800,000, but could end up higher.
Taylor’s cost estimate is $27.6 million for renovation.
Susan Pauling (Center District) said that dropping off or picking up students at Warrenton Middle School on Waterloo Road is “a nightmare,” and that fixing the problem could be difficult and costly.
She and Stephanie Litter-Reber (Lee District) also wanted the board to consider the community’s interest in maintaining Taylor Middle School as a school. Taylor Middle has historical significance as the former William C. Taylor High School, the county’s first black high school.
Pauling said, “There is a strong community interest in making sure it’s not an overlooked school. We want to make sure we are representing the needs of the community.”
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February 05, 2020 at 10:56PM
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School board narrows middle school expansion options | News - Fauquier Times
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