Despite efforts to table the vote, the proposal to build Prince William County’s 12th High School and aquatic center passed five to three. At a price of $97.9 million, including a $8.5 million aquatic center, it will be the most expensive high school ever to be built in the state of Virginia.
School Board members Gil Trenum, Alyson Satterwhite and Lisa Bell said they were unhappy, both about the process of building the 12th high school and how the administration prioritized taxpayer funds for the school. However, those who approved the high school and aquatic center, Chairman Milt Johns, members Lillie Jessie, Betty Covington, Dr. Michael Otaigbe and Loree Williams, said they cast their votes for all children in the community.
The Objections: A Process Without Enough Oversight/Transparency
Brentsville District School Board member Gil Trenum made a motion to table awarding the bid to the Christman Company until after January’s CIP meeting, citing that the school was too expensive and not a priority for the School Board at this juncture.
“We’re building schools, not temples to the gods of education,” nor “to our own over-inflated egos,” Trenum said.[/pullquote]
Trenum was less interested in debating the addition of the aquatic center, which he has gone on record opposing, than explaining how overall he was unhappy with the process of designing and planning for the 12th high school. He said he first heard about the pool from the “rumor mill,” not the administration.
Secondly, he felt that while the school division acted legally when discovering and moving graves, they should have been more transparent with the community.
“I don’t think we did anything legally wrong, but I do feel we were in more of a hurry to meet the letter of the law and follow the legal process," rather than, " being good neighbors. That got ugly," Trenum said.
Moreover, when the bids for the school came back, and the administration realized it was to be the most expensive high school ever proposed in the state of Virginia, he thought those administrators should have sought to scale back some of “accoutrements” such as a $300-400,000 orchestra lift.
Finally, Trenum said the new high school has become symbolic of the failure within School Board and administration to set priorities and correctly allocate funds. He said he talked with teachers who felt that they were unappreciated as funds were instead being used to build expensive schools and extra-curricular facilities.
“I’m just not pleased with the way the whole process has gone,” he said.
Gainesville School Board member Alyson Satterwhite echoed many of Trenum’s sentiments and concerns, but corrected him that the pool would affect the hiring of new teachers as maintenance costs for the aquatic center would come from the pool of money used for paying employees and providing supplies to schools each year.
Satterwhite had some good things to say about the design of the school, but was also dismayed that overly expensive features were included. While she approved of the natural light, space for the various arts and the black box theater, she also questioned the price of the orchestra lift, which she said, “won’t help anyone get into college.”
Similarly, she said she agreed that lane space is needed in the county, but that it falls squarely under the responsibility of the department of parks and recreation.
Lisa Bell of the Neabsco District agreed with both Trenum and Satterwhite, but also offered a unique perspective on the pool: that it would negatively affect student learning as funds are allocated away from other needs. As a parent of a special education student, she said that she understood the argument that an aquatic center could serve that population, but asked at what cost. She said that Prince William County has already had to cut back on funding for special education therapists. She said there are better ways to serve that population than with a pool, and noted that physical therapy would not become part of anyone’s IEP
Bell even question whether the school was needed at all in mid-county.
“All those schools are overcrowded due to transfers not due to boundary students,” she said.
The Proponents: Not a Vote for a Pool, but a Vote for Children
Those in favor of the school said it was not about a pool as much as it was about serving the student population, including all students. Both Occoquan School Board member Lillie Jessie and Betty Covington of the Potomac District said that they grew up poor in the south where pools were a luxury for the rich.
For Jessie, she said the white children swam in the summer and did many things that the African American children, like herself, did not have access to in the south growing up during segregation.
For her, voting for the pool was a change of heart, she explained. While she first considered a pool to be a luxury, she began to see that providing an aquatic facility within a public school could break down economic barriers. She said that now every child in the county, whether rich, poor or middle class, could learn to swim.
Jessie explained that for her a vote for the pool was not a vote against teachers, but one for children. She said she has always supported “spoiling her teachers,” as a principal, because she knew she’d reap the return from them. She said that if the $8 million could go to teachers’ salaries she would provide it to them as a bonus. However, she said that those funds are not transferable.
She also shot back at Trenum saying that there already is a Taj-Mahal in this county, and it is Patriot High School in the Brentsville District. Meanwhile, she said that Woodbridge and Garfield High Schools do not even have windows in any of their classrooms.
Jessie also disagreed with Trenum about the transparency issue, saying that the school division is plenty communicative and that sometimes she receives even too much information about the schools. She blamed school board members themselves, if they did not know enough about the 12th high school.
Betty Covington said she agonized over her decision to approve the school. In the end, however, she said she came to terms with the fact that part of what they do as educators is fund health, wellness, sports and skills.
Covington said the pool is like any other field or athletic facility; the swim athletes have said that it is incredibly needed in the county. Additionally, swimming saves lives and causes few injuries. She was also excited that people of all ages will have access to the pool.
She also defended herself against the idea some may wish to propose, that she votes to spend taxpayer's funds too freely, saying she voted against the building of the Kelly Center administrative building, because it was for adults, not children.
New member Loree Wiliams of the Woodbridge District agreed that the school, along with the aquatic center, were needed facilities and ones that her constituents would appreciate. She said that in approving the school and the pool facility, they are not just serving the residents of the county today, but providing for generations into the future.
Dr. Michale Otaigbe of the Coles District was unusually quiet. The 12th high school is being built in his district, and he has gone on record as being solidly behind it as well as the aquatic center.
Over Hauling Transparency
Many School Board members were concerned about how the public would respond to the building of the pool within the state’s most expensive high school.
Chairman Milt Johns said that, along with the approval of the school, the board would be adding more transparency to the school approval process. One way he intends to do that is by overhauling policy 810, which outlines the process for which the School Board approves the building of new schools. He would like to have the School Board members vote on expensive features of a school and its specialty programs as well.
Public Politics
Johns said that within his ten years on the board the approval of the pool has been one of the “ugliest” matters as residents have been upset, and have in some cases written near slanderous words about School Board members. Johns was not certain if the real issue was the pool, or just a sign of the times, he said, referring the new media landscape, proliferation of community blogs and the interconnectedness of people through social media.
No More Pools in Schools
Johns made Superintendent Dr. Steven Walts promise there are no new school pools planned. Johns said that while the county could use more aquatic facilities, he could not support another school pool, and thus in the future that need would have to be filled through the county’s parks & recreation department.
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