$174 million deal to reduce trailer classrooms effectively dead

School Board members blame the efforts to fund the deal, which would have removed the majority of trailer classrooms, on the Board of County Supervisors.

“It’ just seems like there is no desire on the part of the Board of Supervisors to take action on this,” said Woodbridge District School Board member Loree Williams, who also sits on the Joint Schools Working Committee that has been discussing this issue.

This comes as the Board of County Supervisors is set to cancel its annual joint meeting with the School Board scheduled for November 26.

Also on the Joint Schools committee is Occoquan District Supervisor Ruth Anderson, who called the $174 million trailer reduction plan “premature.”

“We’re a growing jurisdiction and we can’t eliminate all trailers, but we can reduce the number that we use,” she said.

• The funding agreement failed to gain traction with either board, added Anderson.

Elected members of the Boards have been holding joint committee meetings on the plan for more than a year.

• The money would have been used to reduce or eliminate some 200 classroom trailers, replacing them with newly built additions to school buildings.
• It was last discussed in earnest a year ago at a joint meeting of both boards at the county schools’ Kelly Leadership Center headquarters.

Funding for a trailer reduction plan was not included in either of two bond questions that county voters will see on their November 5 ballot.

• Instead, voters will have the option to approve two bonds — up to $355 million for transportation, and up to $41 million for parks and recreation.
• If the bonds pass, as most have in recent years, the county most likely will raise taxes to pay back the debt.
• In doing so, the school division would see an increase in funding as part of a revenue-sharing agreement, where 57% of the entire county budget is automatically given to the School Board to fund school operations.

“If these bonds pass, we’re going to have to raise close to $1 billion to pay back the debt, and for every dollar we raise, the schools get 57%, so they’re going to get their $174 million to fund this,” said Prince William Board of County Supervisors Chairman At-large Corey Stewart.

Stewart also said the school division could eliminate overcrowding by redistricting school zones.

• This option is always unpopular, he said, as many parents want their children to go to specific schools whether their overcrowded or not.