It took a few years, but when the Botetourt County School Board agreed in February to move forward on building a new elementary school to replace the aged Colonial Elementary School in Blue Ridge, the idea steam-rolled its way to a financial conclusion last Thursday evening.
Following a very short public hearing in the Lord Botetourt High School auditorium, the Botetourt Board of Supervisors unanimously approved a bond issue that will provide $22.5 million to build the new school.
The School Board and the county’s Economic Development Authority were also part of the public hearing. All three bodies have a role in the development and financing for the school.
The supervisors agreed to be a part of a bond issue through the Virginia Public School Authority this spring. The board has $1.1 million in the proposed 2018-19 fiscal year budget to pay debt service on the loan. That debt service is expected to double the following fiscal year.
Sue Palmer, a 1959 graduate of what was then Colonial High School, cited the importance of new and old memories in her support of the new building during the public hearing.
The Botetourt Economic Development Authority (EDA) is purchasing almost 27 acres that belong to H. Forest and Pejie Murray at 142 Murray Drive, Troutville for the school. The purchase price is $1.1 million.
The Board of Supervisors approved appropriating $502,000 in additional funds to the EDA when it met last Tuesday afternoon, March 27 to be used for purchasing the property.
The school division hopes to start construction soon enough that the new elementary school can open for the start of the 2020-21 school year.
While the time-line from a special School Board meeting in February when the School Board went public with approval to build the new school to the March 29 public hearing is short, the school and county administrations and an ad hoc committee from the School Board and Board of Supervisors had been meeting since last year to get a grasp on the cost, the property and financing.
The School Board got a report on the progress during a special called executive session during the Virginia School Board Association annual meeting in Williamsburg in November.
— Intern Claire Lawson contributed to this article
