Dear Editor:

A recent article made mention of comments attributed to several Supervisors during their budget retreat.

The comments were critical of the School Board. The statements were misleading and misrepresented the facts. It is unfortunate that during a time when the two Boards must work together that some Supervisors felt a need to launch this unwarranted attack.

Here is the background to this incident. The Board of Supervisors annually conducts budget meetings with its departments in order to discuss budget needs. The school system conducts similar interviews with its staff. Last November the County Administrator invited the School Board to present at the County’s departmental budget meetings.

A joint budget meeting with the School Board and the Board of Supervisors already had been scheduled for February. Since the School Board’s funding is complicated and the County had not provided the Schools with any data with which to generate a budget, the School Board decided not to attend the budget retreat.

This was communicated to the County in December. We were told the County had no objections.

We believed our decision to wait until more information was available was acceptable to all concerned, until we read the Powhatan Today article.

The Supervisors chastised the decision to not attend the retreat, and Mr. Cosby threatened to reduce school funding due to the nonattendance. In other words, because we preferred to wait until more information was available to share, the Board of Supervisors threatened to withhold public school funding for the children of our community.

What we hope by writing this letter is to set the record straight and to let the public know that we have asked for a joint meeting with the Board of Supervisors many times, for several months, so that matters of mutual interest could be addressed. Previous requests for a meeting have been ignored.

We also have requested revenue projections to support our budget forecasting and none have been forthcoming and we still have questions involving the school system which remain unanswered. We are hopeful that a meeting time and place will be agreed upon soon.

We assure the community that we are exercising due diligence in preparing the budget, that we understand that this is the taxpayer’s money and that we are charged with providing a quality education to the children of this county. We will not deter from that responsibility.

Sincerely,
Powhatan County School Board
Mr. Heinrich Gideons, District 1
Mr. Jason Moore, District 2
Mrs. Debbie Jones District 4

Editor’s note: School Board Chairman Tim Gresham and Vice Chairman Valarie Ayers declined to sign the above letter, stating that they preferred to meet with supervisors face to face.