Arlington Schools Superintendent Robert Smith on Monday launched a summer-long series of chats with county residents to discuss the school system's top priorities and educate voters about the $33 million fall bond package.
SMITH SPENT more than an hour with the committee members of the Arlington Learning in Retirement Institute, explaining how the school system is working to boost minority test scores, promoting the arts and meeting the challenges presented by declining enrollment.
A large portion of the informal discussion, which will be followed by seven similar community chats over the next three weeks, dealt with the county's bond package, the smallest in more than a decade.
The bond proposal includes $24.8 million for renovations to Yorktown High School, scheduled to begin in two years, and $6.9 million in design funding for Wakefield High School and Thomas Jefferson Middle School.
Both the superintendent and five School Board members are barred from urging the public to approve the bond in November. A separate committee will be appointed in the coming weeks to promote the bond proposal, by speaking to local PTAs and civic associations, Smith said.
The package that the School Board approved in July is $45 million lower than the one originally recommended by Smith. "We pulled back a little," Smith told more than a dozen members of ALRI.
Arlington voters have overwhelmingly approved recent school bond packages, with each of the past five proposals passing by at least a three-to-one margin.
"It indicates a real support for education in the Arlington community," Smith said in an interview after the meeting. "We're proud of our community."
Yet this is proving to be the most controversial bond package in years.
Rapidly escalating construction costs and a need to stay within self-imposed debt limits, which are not supposed to exceed 10 percent of the yearly operating budget, have constrained what the school system can build.
The School Board struggled to determine which schools to prioritize while crafting its six-year construction program. The board deferred its final vote for a month in order to produce a more restrained plan, and its members are split over whether to delay funding for Yorktown.
Many residents of South Arlington have complained that the board favored Yorktown over its own schools that are in need of renovations, including Jefferson Middle School and several elementary schools.
"Immediate needs in south Arlington are not being addressed," said John Snyder, president of the Douglas Park Civic Association.
SMITH ADMITS that there will be "more discussion" about this bond package than its predecessors.
"There was some controversy arriving at a final decision," Smith said. "And when you cut back, fewer people are satisfied. There are legitimate questions raised about what comes first and second."
Some school activists believe that this bond package will meet fiercer opposition than any proposal in recent memory.
"I think it will be a tough sell," said Snyder, who plans to vote against a bond package for the first time. "Neighborhood and community leaders in South Arlington are not supporting it."
Several south Arlington schools have major maintenance needs, community leaders said. Wakefield, Jefferson and three elementary schools need drastic renovations of their heating and air conditioning systems in order for them to continue to house students, Snyder added.
School Board Chairman Mary Hynes has voiced concern that the situation in the schools is untenable. "We can’t have classrooms with mold growing in them, or [schools] that are saunas," she said during a board meeting last month.
South Arlington residents would like to see some of the money slotted to future Yorktown construction redirected to improving the heating and air conditioning of their schools.
"Schools that require some basic infrastructure corrections should be addressed first, and then the longer, more dollar-intensive projects should be looked at," said Eric Lanman, whose son is fourth-grader at Patrick Henry Elementary. "The school system should have taken this as a year to step back and re-assess."
Smith said he will use his remaining summer meetings to explain to residents the details of the bond package and why the School Board choose to fund these projects. He said the bond committee will exercise "the same degree of vigilance" it has in previous bond years, and that it takes it responsibilities "very seriously."
The school system may find themselves in a similar situation in 2008, when the bond package is expected to balloon to $97 million to cover the bulk of Yorktown construction.
"They have a real selling job ahead of them" in 2008, said Gerald Greenwald, a ALRI executive committee member.
<ro>Summer chats with Superintendent Smith
<lst>Tuesday, July 25 (7–9 p.m.)
Home of Drs. Brian and Danine Gray
6100 35th Street North, Arlington, VA 22213
703-536-2925
Wednesday, July 26 (7–9 p.m.)
Home of Gladis and Nabil Bourdouane
853 South Harrison Street, Arlington, VA 22204
703-379-0270
(Spanish interpretation available)
Thursday, July 27 (7–9 p.m.)
Home of Amy and Enrico Suardi
4116 36th Street South, Arlington, VA 22206
703-820-0656
Monday, July 31 (7–9 p.m.)
Home of Darla and Max Gonson
Co-Host: Rhonda Nibert (703-241-7471)
6592 29th Street North, Arlington, VA 22213
703-532-4558
Wednesday, Aug. 9 (10:15–11 a.m.)
Host: Walter Reed Community "Senior" Center
2909 16th Avenue South, Arlington, VA 22204
703-228-5700
(Vietnamese and Amharic interpretation available)
Wednesday, Aug. 9 (7–9 p.m.)
Home of Mary and Zuard Renkey
1423 North Highland Street, Arlington, VA 22201
703-522-3952
Thursday, Aug. 10 (7–9 p.m.)
Home of Tonya McKee Finley and John Finley
610 21st Street South, Arlington, VA 22202
703-521-3539