Graphic courtesy of BCPS
By Matt de Simone
Budget season has started once again for Botetourt County Public Schools (BCPS).
At the Nov. 14 meeting of he Botetourt County School Board, Financial Director Brandon Lee gave the first reading of the FY 2026-30 Capital Improvement Plan (CIP). In addition to the overview, the board approved a motion (3-2) requesting funds from the Board of Supervisors for the addition of four new classrooms to be built at Colonial Elementary School.
The plan explains the needs for the school division and where the capital needs are funded. According to the reading, projects proposed in the plan include a combination of funding from local funding, use of capital reserve funding, and grants where available both federally and in Virginia. The projects identified in the CIP address maintenance needs and safety/security issues for facilities throughout the division and are all evaluated by BCPS administration staff annually.
In the BCPS CIP, the first year of funding is appropriated as part of the upcoming fiscal year budget. The remaining years become a part of the division’s planning purposes. Adjustments could be made for funding in the future. The plan’s overview notes if local funding is not available from Botetourt County, projects proposed will be postponed until funding can be made available or the project scope will be reevaluated. The CIP for FY 2026-30 follows the strategic plan adopted by the board for 2022-27 and includes recommendations from the safety and security evaluation given last year.
The summary, found on the BCPS website’s agenda page (go.boarddocs.com/vsba/bcps/Board.nsf/Public), gives a look at the proposed funding for years 2026 through 2030. It includes a breakdown of the revenue summary where it lists the requests from the county totaling $42,300,000 over the five years.
Lee noted that the funding sources over the last few years, including funding during the pandemic, were able to be leveraged with the division spending a little over $5.5 million on “capital things” like buses, HVAC, security, roofing projects, and school nutrition. Thanks to those additional funds, the school division’s request from the county is less.
“We’ve been able to leverage those to the best of our ability to try to take care of some things that were pretty pressing and that needed to be taken care of,” Lee said. “All I can say is that those pots are no longer here. That was one-time money. They are gone. They’re not coming back. So, the needs that we have here (in the plan’s summary) – $12 million next year, $42 (million) over the life of this plan… The funding’s got to come from somewhere.”
Superintendent Dr. Jonathan Russ clarified with Lee that the $5.5 million received by BCPS over the last three years did not include county money or taxpayer money, but came to the division from federal dollars that included ESSER and School Construction Grant funding.
An expenditure summary is also included which provides a breakdown of items that include transportation, site, school buildings, and safety/security ($12.6 million ask of the county for FY 2026). Each are broken down by category. Valley District representative Tim Davidick pointed out that three of the items listed (roof replacements, track replacements, and a “10 bus blend”) are categories of emphasis. “Safety and security” is a line item listed as the No. 1 priority in the division’s expenditures.
Lee then went over the facility statistics, giving an overview which includes the age and size of the buildings. The plan summary includes a breakdown of the major construction projects undertaken by the school division dating back to 1949.
One topic of discussion following the CIP overview was a major need for Colonial Elementary School in Blue Ridge, built in 2020. One of the line items in the revenue summary is for four new classrooms added to Colonial Elementary School ($2 million). The school is currently in need of extra classroom space. The board explained rooms previously used for specific classes or staff have been converted to serve general education at the ever-growing school.
Russ mentioned that the division has two options for Colonial: adding classrooms to the current structure, or adding “learning cottages”/trailers.
“I’ve never seen a trailer or ‘learning cottage’ set on a property and then move,” Russ shared. “If they come, they stay. We have no choice but to educate the kids that come before us and that’s what we’re going to do. Our hope is to be able to educate them in a beautiful, new building (Colonial) that we have sitting there with the addition of four new classrooms. That’s my hope.”
Davidick agreed with the superintendent mentioning the previous renovations needed for Central Academy Middle School (CAMS) back in 2012 prior to the construction of the new Colonial Elementary, noting the eight years between major construction projects within BCPS.
“We’ve been putting these needs out there for a long, long time and it’s just going to get more expensive and it’s just going to get more harder to do,” Davidick added. “We’re setting ourselves up for a real difficult time ahead of us (if we don’t get funding for these classrooms).”
Blue Ridge representative Matt East requested to School Board Chair Anna Weddle to formally make a motion to include the addition of four new rooms added to Colonial Elementary. Russ said that the division “hasn’t gone through procurement at its fullest extent” and that the $2 million line item in the CIP is more of a “guess” but that Russ “feels confident” that BCPS can build the classrooms under the number.
Buchanan representative Jenny Wilson shared she is “all for the plan” but feels the board should “show due diligence” and look over the efficiency study completed last year. “I think that we have an obligation, too, to dig deep and figure out where we can save in places and show that to the Board of Supervisors. It’s an awful big bucket that needs to be filled.”
Weddle added her concern about waiting on building the classrooms and ending up with trailers at Colonial. “Just a few more kids in each class (at Colonial) and we’ll be there.”
Russ added, “I can’t see us waiting much longer without having to go with (trailers). If there’s a huge kindergarten class that enrolls this coming year, this might be the year. We’re at the point now, if we started tomorrow, there’s not going to be four rooms ready when fall rolls around for the new school year.”
The superintendent noted that the division was previously told that once construction starts, builders could complete two classrooms, and then finish the other two (during the school year). However, all of that would occur after procurement and that would only occur after funding is approved by the Board of Supervisors.
“It’s not a huge deal as (it would be) if we were adding on to one of our other schools,” Russ continued. “When schools are built now… most schools that are constructed are built in a manner that you can add on (additional classrooms) later in case there is growth (in student population). That is the case for Colonial.”
Russ noted that once procurement is over and funding is secured, construction could begin “right away.” Fincastle representative Dana McCaleb confirmed with Russ that said construction wouldn’t affect the learning process during the school day.
The board then passed the motion to request funds from the Board of Supervisors for the addition of four new classrooms at Colonial Elementary (3-2, with Davidick and Wilson voting no).
To learn more about projects in-progress and the steps taken during the procurement process for Capital Improvements, visit the school division’s website at www.bcps.k12.va.us. There, visitors may scroll down to “CIP: Priority Projects” located to the right of the Strategic Direction “2022-2027” tab. The page lists the general steps of the process in the research, selection of products/services, procurement, purchase orders, receipts, and final verifications or inspections. It also includes a timelines and completion status of projects in progress.
To watch the CIP overview and discussion in its entirety, visit bcps.live/archives.
