Image courtesy of BCPS.live
By Matt de Simone
Following a discussion about the proposed Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) for fiscal years 2026-30, the Botetourt County School Board took action on the item at its December meeting held at the Botetourt County Public Schools (BCPS) Administrative Offices in Fincastle last Thursday night.
BCPS Finance Director Brandon Lee brought back the same plan he presented to the board last month. The board unanimously adopted the FY 2026-30 CIP last Thursday, as presented. Moving forward, the board could make changes to their maintenance priorities, if needed.
Generally, a CIP is a strategic, multi-year plan that outlines major infrastructure projects, improvements, and large capital expenditures for a community or organization. It prioritizes projects such as constructing new facilities, renovating existing buildings, or upgrading essential infrastructure. The plan also identifies funding sources and timelines to ensure these investments are managed efficiently and align with long-term goals. In a sense, it serves as a roadmap for planning, budgeting, and executing significant, long-term capital projects.
“(The school system’s) Capital Improvement Plan has been an ongoing, developing document that we’ve seen over the last handful of years and a good way for us to highlight the needs we have in the county for our buildings, for our students in the buildings that we provide them to learn in every day,” Lee noted.
Lee added that while the document isn’t “perfect,” it is “capital maintenance” that provides the public to see the things BCPS sees in their buildings and what the school division considers the “needs” for those schools.
Fincastle District School Board representative Dana McCaleb, who has been a member of the School Board for the last four years, suggested providing a maintenance plan for the community, and using the CIP as something completely different.
In the current CIP, the additional classrooms for Colonial Elementary School, as discussed last month, is the only item in the current CIP that is considered a capital project. Superintendent Dr. Jonathan Russ spoke about a consideration to move some of the items from the maintenance plan into the general operation budget. The upcoming budget has yet to be proposed. Russ stated that it all comes down to the funding provided by the county Board of Supervisors.
Valley District representative Tim Davidick suggested adding the maintenance line items into the budget.
“I believe we should put our maintenance line items back into the budget,” Davidick said. “As long as I’ve been here, the maintenance budget has been called out because of economic woes for the county… It would make a lot more sense for (the School Board) to put (maintenance) into the budget where it belongs… and we could dream with this document because that what this document was supposed to do. It was supposed to step us into a healthy maintenance environment, and then springboard us on to other things – new high school, new elementary schools.”
Davidick added that BCPS currently can’t “dream” because it can’t fix their buildings due to lack of funding from the county. Lee provided an idea to look at the maintenance needs as “major capital” and “minor capital” items to better understand their priorities.
“It’s semantics,” McCaleb said. “We need money for things… I’m incredibly frustrated because, to me, we are a very rich county, but yet we have no money for our school system. Why? Eighty-five percent of our budget goes to personnel. So, I don’t care what we call it as long at the county would give us some money to do the things we need to do… If anybody out there has any ideas about how to get us some money because I get tired of taking calls about how bad our schools are (in terms of maintenance needs). We can’t do it without getting funded, that’s the bottom line… We need money from our Board of Supervisors.”
School Board Chair Anna Weddle directed the public to visit the BCPS website (bcps.k12.va.us). There, visitors can see the CIP prioritized projects planned for this year and the items that were and were not funded. Russ noted the items on the plan cannot be taken off at this point. Although the board approved the plan as presented, there still are changes that can be made in terms of maintenance items.
To watch last week’s BCPS School Board meeting in its entirety, please visit bcps.live/archives.
