At the September 2024 Board of Supervisors meeting, the school report included a request for additional taxpayer funds of $567,881.62 to construct a playground at the elementary school to benefit our youngest community members. 

The elementary school playground first showed up as a project in 2014 as part of the schools’ six year plan – a full ten years ago.[1]

In the ensuing years, the playground has deteriorated to the point of being unsafe, not just for the school children, but for community members who use the equipment when school is not in session.  Martha Williams stated that “…at this time NCPS is not following playground codes…”[2]  Should the playground be replaced?  It should have been a priority well before today and could have been funded under the ESSER grants[3]

The current cost estimate (from a single bidder) is $567,881.62.  Just prior to the request for additional funds for the playground, the school finance director stated that there would be leftover funds in 2024 of $2,000,000 ($1,600,000 in reimbursements already received and another $453,000 in reimbursements expected by November[4].  Reimbursements repay the County for taxpayer funds that were appropriated to and spent by the school system – they are not ‘leftover’ funds. 

Reimbursements to the County of $2,000,000 could fund priorities for emergency responders, tax relief, County reserves (which have dwindled over the past few years) or other capital improvements.  Is the school playground the highest priority for County residents right now?  The School Board has not even voted on this latest supplemental appropriation – at the very least, a record of the vote doesn’t appear in School Board meeting notes. The school system is returning $2M to the County and the Board of Supervisors NEEDS to have a discussion about how to use that funding (or save it). Giving it back to the school without serious consideration for all county priorities rewards ten years of poor fiscal management and priority decisions by the School Board.

[1] https://nucps.ss5.sharpschool.com/common/pages/GetFile.ashx?key=tsdtACQ4

[2] https://go.boarddocs.com/va/nuc/Board.nsf/files/D9ERAQ6D1585/$file/PlaygroundProposal%20(1).pdf

[3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRinAcVyATg @ marker 42:00

[4] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZagrGyUDuo @ marker 47:11