BERLIN – The community is united in its desire to see Buckingham Elementary School replaced.
In the wake of the news that the state will not be providing funding for a new Buckingham Elementary School, local officials, educators, parents and community members have all come forward to share their support for the project.
“Buckingham was built eight short years after the county desegregated schools,” parent Brian Robertson said. “Our children, community and teachers have rallied around the school’s inadequacies for too long.”
On Tuesday, the Worcester County Commissioners voted unanimously to pause the county’s latest school construction project, the replacement of Buckingham Elementary School. The decision comes after county staff discovered an irregularity in the school system’s Capital Improvement Program (CIP)—the fact that it didn’t list Buckingham, a project already being designed. When contacted about the CIP, school system officials confirmed that they found out back in February that the state would not be providing funding for a new school because state officials believe there is capacity at adjacent schools such as Showell and Ocean City Elementary. While they subsequently tried to seek funding through a different program, they were advised Sept. 21 the project wasn’t eligible.
In the weeks since, school system leadership has met with county staff as well as the Eastern Shore Delegation—Sen. Mary Beth Carozza, Del. Wayne Hartman and Del. Charles Otto. The county commissioners on Tuesday voted unanimously to pause the project and to support the school system as board of education (BOE) officials work to appeal the state’s decision.
Elections have consequences! How many of our highly-educated superiors actually did vote for Less Moore? And WCPS lack of transparency AGAIN costs County taxpayers more money, hardly an irregularity.
Worcester County Schools could shift the students to other schools that have been updated. The building could then be repurposed, or the land and building could be sold to offset costs. Worcester has options, but they really wanted that new building. That is the problem, and they just got called out by the state. After the black eye they suffered at the hands of the county commissioners, you think they would have learned. Ooopps.