The number of schools being opened this fall just went down by one.
At its Oct. 24 meeting, the School Board voted unanimously to delay the opening of Creighton's Corner Elementary School by one year due to additional seats available at Rosa Lee Carter Elementary School. Both schools are going to be located south of Ryan Road and east of Belmont Ridge Road.
Creighton's Corner is now tentatively scheduled to be opened for the 2008-2009 school year.
Sam Adamo, the director of Planning and Legislative Services for the school system, said that when the county received the initial bids for the project, all of the bids were exceeding the county's budget allocations.
"There was an acceleration of costs in there because the project would have been contained to seven months," he said. "It was pretty steep."
Delaying the school, Adamo said, would give the chance for rebidding and additional time for contractors to build the school.
"By bringing a new bid package we would be able to get that back into our allotted budget," he said.
ONE OF THE main reasons both Creighton's Corner and Rosa Lee Carter are needed was to relieve several schools that are experiencing student overflow, including nearby Legacy Elementary School.
The delay of Creighton's Corner, Adamo said, would not affect the school system's ability to take some of the enrollment burden off of overcrowded schools.
"I think we have enough ability between Legacy and Rosa Lee Carter opening to be able to balance the enrollment," he said. "If we do this right we can end up with Rosa Lee Carter around where we opened Legacy."
The change to the schedule for Creighton's Corner will not alter the schedule for adopting boundaries for Rosa Lee Carter. Adamo is set to make a recommendation to the School Board on the school's boundaries Tuesday, Nov. 14.