Wake County officials want to buy, build schools

Raleigh, N.C. — A proposal to shift more authority to the Wake County commissioners for building and maintaining schools could help cool the commissioners' sometimes heated relationship with school board members.

The Wake County Board of Commissioners on Monday expressed its support for the idea, which the Wake Education Partnership and the Greater Raleigh Chamber of Commerce proposed in April.

Under the proposal, the Wake County Board of Education would let commissioners buy land for schools and then design, build and maintain them.

County attorneys assured commissioners that such an arrangement would not violate state law and that it could work like any other inter-local agreements.

Supporters argued that the proposal would allow the school system to focus on educating students and keep disagreements between the two boards to a minimum.

Commissioners and school board members have publicly clashed over land purchases in the past year, with commissioners saying the school system was paying too much for land in a number of cases.

Supporters also said the arrangement would take advantage of the county's exemption from the state sales tax when it buys supplies. State law does not extend that same privilege to school systems.

County officials estimate that Wake lost $615,981 by not transferring school deeds to the commissioners earlier. School officials put the figure at $70,000.

Since commissioners have indicated their support for the arrangement, the Board of Education must next signal its willingness to do so also.

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hi, I lived on long island ny and each town had their own school district, BIG WASTE OF MONEY. I like that the county runs the schools.

Remember when the DOT paid big money for land that was needed for highways ? They overpaid (friends of the dot owned the land (wink nod handshake) and dot got kicked by the governor. now govorner must approve these big money land deals.

as long as checks and balances are in place this would work.

james27613
May 6, 2008 6:41 p.m.

As my daddy used to say, the school board suffers from "Too much college and not enough high school".

Most (if not all) of the Board is not nearly as smart as their degrees say they are. They try to push all this grand social planning, crazy programs, etc. instead of just teaching the kids.

speedy
May 6, 2008 12:00 p.m.

atc2 - Wake County schools have received only a fraction of that money. The money is distributed to schools based on their population and property tax rates. Last year Wake got $7.6 million for construction, $7.3 million for class size reduction, and $2.9 million for "More at Four" - source: http://www.nc-educationlottery.org/uploads/fy07_beneficiaries.pdf . The construction money is enough to build one elementary school. The lottery web-site also has the state statutes that govern it too - interesting reading if you're an insomniac!

SaveEnergyMan
May 6, 2008 11:53 a.m.

Phrostbite

The professional educators are the main cause of the failing system.

whatelseisnew
May 6, 2008 10:58 a.m.

They should start with a one year agreement & see how it goes. This will show the Commisioners it's not as easy as they seem to think. This will also allow the school board to have one less fight for a year. Now I must admit though, I'm not comfortable with politicians designing schools, that should be left to professional educators.

Phrostbite
May 6, 2008 10:42 a.m.