Richmond School Board again debates closing schools

The total school budget for next year, including federal, state and other funding, is $246.5 million, down from $249 million from the fiscal year that ended June 2012.

And despite a schools report that says the system has nearly $18.6 million in maintenance needs for its roughly 50 buildings in the coming year, it will only get $685,000 from the city to that end.

However, the city has included money in next year’s capital improvement program to begin plans to tear down and replace Overby-Sheppard Elementary as part of the redevelopment of the former Dove Court public housing community. The school is projected to cost about $21.5 million.

Overby-Sheppard, built in 1976, is not high on the list of priorities in the school system’s 10-year, $105 million maintenance plan, a fact that was not lost on the speakers who addressed the council. Link