Pushing back against a proposal by Harford County Executive David R. Craig to prioritize a $60 million future replacement for Havre de Grace High School, the Harford County Council voted on May 15th to delay the project in the county’s long term capital budget by at least two years. Council President Billy Boniface blasted Craig’s proposal of the project, which was not requested by the Harford County Board of Education, saying that the move, and a reordering by Craig of the school board’s stated capital priorities, “came out of left field.”
County Executive Craig proposed $20 million per year in funding for three years, beginning in fiscal year 2014, to replace Havre de Grace High School. In a 5 – 2 vote, the council action kept the project alive, but pushed the start date out to fiscal year 2016 and slashed funding in that year from $20 million to $4 million, which Council Vice President Dick Slutzky said was intended to cover the cost of engineering and design. The council action, which came in the form of a memorandum of change to the capital program, provided no additional funding for the project beyond 2016. Boniface said that Craig’s plan was “misleading to the people of Havre de Grace and based on empty promises.”
Craig put the Havre de Grace High School replacement project in his proposed Six-Year Capital improvement Program (CIP) budget, which outlines school projects to be paid for in fiscal year 2013 and prioritizes projects for the following five years, subject to funding availability. No funding for Havre de Grace was requested in fiscal year 2013. However, the creation and adoption of the Six-Year CIP is part of the county budget process.
Council President Boniface said that he and Council Vice President Dick Slutzky met with school officials, including School Board President Leonard Wheeler and Superintendent Robert Tomback, who told them they had not been consulted about the move on Havre de Grace High School or the other changes proposed by Craig. “It, too, came out of left field to them,” Boniface said. “I get it, the county executive lives in Havre de Grace, he wants a high school in Havre de Grace, he went there, his grandchildren are going to go there, I get it ” Boniface said, adding that he also lives in the Havre de Grace High School district. “But there’s a process,” Boniface said, “and the process involves collaboration… that’s what leadership is about, bringing people together in finding solutions.”
Boniface also took Craig to task for acting before the results are known from an upcoming independent analysis of all county facilities, including schools. The so-called “Countywide Facilities Master Plan” will review the condition of existing facilities and be used to prioritize facility needs. Boniface said the plan would provide a common sense basis for decision-making, “we have got to get away from doing everything based on politics,” he said.
Speaking of Craig’s proposals for schools in future years, Boniface said, “Every dollar that [the county executive] puts in his budget for us to go to the bank and borrow, he will never have to figure out how to pay for it.” Craig is serving a second term as county executive and cannot run again in 2014 due to term limits.
Craig has argued that Havre de Grace is the oldest high school in the county and the only one never scheduled for renovation. During his tenure, Craig said, he accelerated plans for new facilities for Bel Air and Edgewood high schools, along with an expansion for Aberdeen High.
Craig declined to comment on the council action. In response to questions from The Dagger, Craig said through a spokesman that he is reserving comment until the budget process is concluded.
Councilman Slutzky, representing Aberdeen, said at the council meeting that all projects would be considered if money was available, but in the current economic climate, the focus should be on the priorities identified by the school board. Slutzky said that the county forward funded $370 million for schools in the last seven years, getting part of that back in the form of reimbursements from the state. The state shares the cost of school construction with local governments, but Slutzky said that the state’s contribution as a percentage of total costs had dwindled over the years. Boniface said that forward funding new schools had quadrupled the county debt and put the county in a “cautions situation.”
No Change to Craig’s Other Capital School Priorities
The council made no other changes to Craig’s CIP, which reordered school board priorities involving Youth’s Benefit Elementary School in Fallston, and a dual project involving the John Archer School and a related renovation of Homestead Wakefield Elementary in Bel Air.
Also included as a top priority in Craig’s CIP is a replacement school for Youth’s Benefit, with funding to begin in fiscal year 2014, the same year as his proposal for Havre de Grace High. Boniface said that the council would not support two projects at once, and said school officials told him that the state was unlikely to do so either. However, he said that the Youth’s Benefit project, which was requested by the school board , was likely to gain funding support from the council in future years. He also defended a recent decision by the school board to install air conditioning in the Youth’s Benefit primary building, noting that a replacement project of the two-building school would take three to four years to complete once funding was secured.
Number two on Craig’s list of priorities is the relocation of the John Archer School and a related modernization for Homestead Wakefield Elementary School in Bel Air, with funding to begin in 2016. Funding for a modernization of William Paca/Old Post Road Elementary in Abingdon is planned for fiscal year 2017. All plans are subject to funding availability and approvals by the school board and county council in future budget years.
Casting one of the two dissenting votes on the delay for Havre de Grace High School, Councilwoman Mary Ann Lisanti, representing Havre de Grace, said that she had voted for upgrades to schools in every other district, but “we have not been equitable in the way we have funded capital projects.”
Lisanti listed the many times the school board had shifted priorities in recent years and pointed to systemic problems in the state process for funding capital projects for schools, which she said needed to be fixed. “I don’t think it’s fair that there are zip codes that have really cool schools…I don’t think it’s fair that there are schools in the county that have deplorable conditions,” Lisanti said.
What is Harford counties obsession with replacing all of its schools. How about replacing some of its teachers first.
Lisanti sounds like an idiot. When she made her comment about “zip codes having really “COOL SCHOOLS” I’m sure she didn’t mean in the Rt. 40 corridor. Edgewood just got a new high school and Deerfield Elementary. Good for them! Old Post and William Paca look like slums and this should be a priority now and not in 2017. What is a “cool school” anyway? One with air conditioning? Then she should start pushing for the schools that don’t have a/c to get it. If she is referring to “cool” in the sense that an elementary child would, then she needs a thesaurus. These politicians need to stop their whining when they don’t get their way. Kudos to Billy Boniface for slamming the door on Craig trying to slip in a new HDG HS in under everyone’s nose.
I hope people know that anything planned to START in the “out” years aka FY15-F18 are barely considered as reality let alone an agreement. FY16 = Tentative-Maybe-Depends kind of ideas.
I disagree w BBC. No one attempted to “sneak” a 20 million project in for Fy13-14; budget review
project for FY13. I believe there is confidential financial data not provided or not shared thru this article. They have or werecgranted monies to spend on the next tier of priorities behind level 1 which must directly support daily operations (e.g. Operations Essential.”. Regardless, my point FY16’s budget technically means very little in terms of commitment.
The people need to flip the story. Craig went against the “grain. ” by having the backbone to NOT be a yes-manl/woman. See entire budget allocations then re-think where the “Leaders” priorities lie…
I could be wrong. Maybe HdG High is fine; only played bball against them but the oldest high school certainly dersernea attention. It was delayed bc everyone wants a part. If for some crazy treason, you suggest a grea idea, good luck gathering support – do yourself a favor and include the board members next fine so they can’t pull thus card again
Northern Harford County – North Harford High District.
Also, you have to spell explain some jargon e.g. Forward Funding”
That the 20 million was published in the CIP does not put the HdG HS project in the realm of being sneaked into the budget; however, that this project was not raised with the County Council or the BOE prior the the County Executives’ released report would suggest it was not properly vetted. So the reaction of the County Council should not have been unexpected by Mr. Craig. I suspect that the BOE also has its’ own ideas about the order of priority in school construction projects, which according to prior reporting puts HdG HS far down the list. If there were additional outside funding sources specific to building a new HdG HS (I do not believe there are) Mr. Craig could better have sold it to the Council and BOE by speaking with them first. He did not, and as Mr. Boniface stated the actions appear to be politically motivated. If the County Executive wants to go against the grain it would, as Mr. Boniface suggested, better to gather support in advance. Going against the grain is fine if that is the course Mr. Craig chooses to take, but it can be akin to swimming against the tide which can also lead to the swimmer drowning.
Havre de Grace has not had a representative on the Board of Education for over 6 months now. When the BOE says that HdG High is not on the renovation list….why would it be? Who’s HdG’s advocate? Is the Board Rep for Bel Air or JoppaTowne going to be fighting for a new HdG high school? David Craig is the ONLY person speaking up on the part of the citizens of HdG. The citizens of HdG pay taxes to the county but have no representation. A war was once started because of taxation without representation….but I guess it’s ok to let a city of 14000 people go unrepresented on the BOE. How dare Mr. Boniface mock Mr. Craig’s motives? He has supported the construction of many schools in this county until he set his sights on the one in his home town. Boniface is angry at Craig and he does a bad job playing politics, unfortunately at the cost of our children. HdG has no magnate program either…although the CE has advocated for that as well. I am very unhappy with the BOE and the county council right now. I feel that HdG schools are the bastard child of the county.
You can blame the governor for having no rep on the BOE. He is the one that makes these appointments. There have been many past members of the BOE from the HdG community. That HdG HS has not been listed as a major priority is a reflection that previous boards thought there were more pressing needs for the school system to address.
Mr. Boniface was concerned because if the Council approves this expenditure, they are going to be faced with figuring out how to pay for it not the County Executive. With the State pushing the teacher pensions onto the counties over the next few years AND increasing taxes on everyone, think it is difficult to predict what tax revenues are going to be. When the County built and renovated some high schools they had no idea the bubble was going to burst as much as it did and it is not over yet. Also looks like the BOE needs to look seriously at REDISTRIBUTING STUDENTS or whatever term they are using now. Fallston High is way under capacity, CMW has less students than Bel Air making that school and Patterson Mill the most overcrowded high school in the county with building still going on. Oh and Edgewood is WAY under capacity.
To Educator–we need to replace this superintendent so we can correct all the ills he has brought to our school system.
Did anybody notice that Capt Jim proposed a charter amendment last night to allow Council Members to leave the Council to take a county job? Who’s nest is he trying to feather? Does he have a job lined up? Is Boniface going to get an appointment from Glassman? Is Chad going pack to be a planner? Nice to see where there priorities are.
For a really good perspective on the issues surrounding the replacement of Havre de Grace High School read Allan Vought’s opinion piece “Need vs. reality consumes Havre de Grace High replacement project” in the online Aegis at explorharford.com Makes real sense.
Make that exploreharford.com