Don't spend money we don't have on a school we don't need right now

To the editor,
On the evening of Nov. 25, my wife and I sat in on a board of supervisors/school board budget work session. With the economy tanking, and foreclosures and unemployment rates rising, we anticipated that there would be some very frank discussions on funding cutbacks for the school year 2008-2009 budget, and for all capital improvement plans including the new middle school. To our surprise and wonderment, none of that happened. The only elected official to raise a question about going into debt for $50 million-plus (that plus will be about $25 million) was supervisor Pace, and she was told by supervisor Frame that there was no majority on the board that wanted to have that discussion. It is not a secret that I have felt from the very beginning that this new middle school is the wrong school in the wrong place for the wrong price. One can't help but wonder if Dr. Crawford's firing (which will cost the taxpayer at least $100,000) didn't have something to do with the budget and the middle school construction. If you remember, he wanted to build an elementary school; then when a middle school was forced on him, he wanted to build an 800-student facility and got a 1,200-student facility that he said was too large to manage. Therefore, it had to be built in a manner to isolate the grades at a much higher expense. He also said that you don't think about building a new facility until the current one(s) are at 113 percent capacity. The middle schools right now are at less then 100 percent. Based on current trends, the new middle school may well have a vacancy rate of 50 percent for many years to come. The state only pays for students in seats; the county taxpayer will have to pay for the empty seats.
So why weren't there some discussions about changing course or delaying because of the economic outlook? Even, if you get a "good deal," it still has to be paid for. The state has already indicated that there will be cut backs, ranging from 5 percent to 20 percent, so we all know who will be asked to makeup that difference. Our elected officials need to pull their heads out of the sand and look at the some of the recent headlines; "Culpeper schools face some tough choices," (Free Lance-Star, Nov. 25, 2008); "Spotsylvania delays new school construction," (Free Lance-Star, Nov. 25, 2008); "Orange budget prospects are grim for next year," (Free Lance-Star, Nov. 20, 2008); Stafford, "Budget forecast is bleak," (Free Lance-Star, Nov. 21, 2008); "New school project may be delayed", (Orange County Review, Nov. 6, 2008). Some local jurisdictions are actually, seeing negative growth in their school systems. Why, would Orange County be any different?
Orange County is continuing down the path that got this country into its worst economic crisis since the 1930s, too much debt. Remember there is still about $50 million in debt on the books for the current middle schools and the high school renovations, this is not the time to add $50 million plus more debt to an already "crushing tax burden."
I urge all Orange citizens to contact our elected officials to let them know that we don't want to spend money we don't have for a middle school we don't need right now. Now is the time for taxpayers to take a stand.
John Bangs
Orange