Without a cost savings, James "Jim" Burton (I-Mercer) is no longer interested in the idea of building two-story elementary schools.
Burton invited an Alexandria architecture firm to the Sept. 15 Finance and Government Services Committee meeting to present information about designing two-story schools and custom-fitting them to their sites. He had met with Fanning Howey Associates Inc. months ago and discussed whether the designs would save on construction funds, a savings the firm indicated the designs could provide, he said.
"What their analysis shows, there basically aren't any savings," Burton said.
Burton is not interested in reopening the debate that occurred about five years ago on building two-story elementary and middle schools, he said. "We are running out of 20-acre sites," he said. "I thought it might be useful to hear from designers that can build into less-than-perfect sites."
A FEW SCHOOL Board members were disappointed to not be invited to the committee meeting, they said at their Sept. 23 board meeting.
"We have to have two bodies that work together. Our doors are always open," said Robert DuPree, Jr. (Dulles). "We have to have open lines of communication."
"The way to harm the good relations ... is to not invite us to the table," said Candyce Cassell (Sugarland Run). "We're not novices at construction. I daresay we're one of the biggest construction firms in the state of Virginia."
Burton invited Superintendent Edgar Hatrick and the school administration to the meeting. "If he chose to not share it with the School Board, their argument is with him," he said.
Hatrick said he received an e-mail Sept. 12 from a deputy county administrator, advising him that a brief presentation was planned on Monday.
"We were invited to sit in on the presentation, and no one asked me to invite the School Board," Hatrick said, adding that the invitation did not arrive in enough time to invite the School Board. "The topic was something we've looked at a lot and something we could shed some information on."
Hatrick sent Evan Mohler, assistant superintendent of support services, to the meeting. After the meeting, Mohler said a two-story school would save a third to a half acre and that the savings would occur environmentally by using less ground and requiring less impervious surfaces. "Right now, it doesn't make sense," he said in a separate interview. "Our one-story schools have evolved over the last 10 to 15 years. They meet our instructional program needs."