STAFFORD COUNTY — Ferry Farm Elementary School will receive a renovation to its 53-year-old basement addition under a resolution passed by the Stafford County Board of Supervisors.
All told, the renovation will cost $1.9 million with money coming from leftover money from last fiscal year and diverted funds coming from renovation projects at H.H. Poole Middle School and Mountain View High School.
The approved basement renovation comes after the School Board requested $10.8 million for the renovation of an original wing of the school built in 1955, which the Board of Supervisors approved last summer.
Both renovation plans include three more classrooms and will increase the size of the music and art classrooms and will add an elevator and handicap bathrooms. The plans also include adding more school security, relocating and expanding the main office, creating a new nurse clinic, and replacing the aging HVAC and electrical systems.
The renovation will not increase the overall capacity of the school.
“Here’s where I’m concerned,” Rockhill Supervisor Wendy Maurer said. “We’re spending $3 million to add 7,000 square feet that doesn’t add any capacity.”
According to Stafford County Public Schools, there are some concerns about air quality and inadequate light in the basement. Both special education and reading programs classrooms are located in the basement.
The air quality was last tested in 2005, and no problems were found.
The Board of Supervisors didn’t hold back its frustration and concern about the cost of the renovation.
“I hope we aren’t going to come back a year from now and need something else like an HVAC or now there’s an inefficient use of the facilities in the basement,” Garrisonville District Supervisor Mark Dudenhefer said.
If the Supervisors failed to pass the renovation, the school’s capacity would decrease by 78 students affected the School Board’s county-wide redistricting process. Those students would have been moved to another school.
“I would rather see Ferry Farm renovated for the good rather than it be a pretty project,” said resident Susan Randall, of the George Washington District. “We’re talking about a total county redistricting process and we need to gain seats not lose them.”
This newly approved and funded renovation will be Ferry Farm Elementary’s last, according to Supervisors.
The School Board in its Capital Improvement Plan included an $8 million upgrade to Ferry Farm’s 1966 addition and a $10.3 million upgrade to the 1988 and 1991 additions, scheduled for 2027 and 2029. Those, apparently, won’t be funded by the Board of Supervisors.
“I have no recollection of discussions of additional phasing,” Dudenhefer said, referring to the County School Board. “You know our pocket is full for the amount of debt we can carry. What it looks like is you’ve added this phasing and are talking about committing debt capacity we don’t have for future years.”
