CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (CVILLE RIGHT NOW) — Members of the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors pushed back on plans to build a fourth high school, the county school board’s top priority for the upcoming capital improvement plan, during a joint work session of the two bodies Wednesday.

The School Board believes that population projections will render the county’s three current high schools over capacity in the next two years and want the Supervisors to approve the budget for a new $230-$240 million school to open by 2030-31.

“I am not someone who is gun shy about really leaning in on risky financial policy,” Supervisor Mike Pruitt said during the meeting. “I’m probably the most comfortable with financial risk on the board. I say, I don’t see a way to literally do it. It does not seem like a possible proposal on the timeline that was presented.”

The School Board made its presentation, sharing the population data and other drivers behind their decision to pursue the new school, after which the Supervisors commented on what they had heard.

Pruitt questioned why the school board, after implementing their model for the addition of centers to the current high schools despite calls from the public for a fully-fledged comprehensive high school, were now requesting what the public had been asking for in the first place. Then, he questioned if the plan was even financially possible.

That set the tone for the rest of the meeting, as BOS members questioned if the risks of the plan were worth taking on in the CIP. The issues presented by the BOS centered around the financial possibility of the plan, especially given the school construction projects already underway by the County, as well as the data presented to justify such a project.

“I don’t know where any of this data came from,” Supervisor Ann Mallek said, discussing the importance of third-party data. “I don’t know where the data comes from, if it’s the one the long-term planning committee use, or if there are people who are not school affiliated, who are on the long-term planning committee. I don’t know who they are. So that is part of the information that I think would be helpful for us to have more going forward.”

In response, School Board chairperson Dr. Kate Acuff, who called herself a strong proponent of the center model in the past, said the County had expected to be building its third or fourth center by now. In reality, Center Two at Albemarle High School is still under construction, and even when it opens next year, Acuff said it won’t be enough to alleviate the overcrowding in the longterm.

In the end, the Supervisors requested more data before any plans can be considered.

“What I’ve heard is that we need to go back to the drawing board and get data that we both can feel comfortable with in terms of supporting the high school,” Acuff said as the meeting began to draw to a close.

After the meeting, ACPS spokesperson Jason Grant told Cville Right Now that while there were plenty of questions presented by the BOS, “as there should be,” the next steps for the School Division will be to address those questions so that the county can move forward with this project.

“I don’t think anything is settled in anyway at this point,” he said. “I think we’re clear this is what the priority is. Our School Board laid that out. The Board of Supervisors expressed some of their questions and concerns about it and so, we continue to move forward together. What’s the best thing we do as a community? And that’s the goal.”

Did Wednesday’s meeting imperil the chances for a new school opening by 2030-31?

“That’s really a question for the Board of Supervisors,” Grant said. “From the school division, we look at it as the top priority. That’s what the data says.”