BOS should not cut key Yowell features

There are rumors that three features of the new Yowell Elementary School will not be constructed or funded so the facilities cost will be near $14.9 million. The three features rumored to be eliminated are:

-Kitchen equipment for the cafeteria
-Gymnasium
-Library

The Board of Supervisors needs to have a serious talk with the new homeowners that will be sending their children to a half-done facility. They are sending a message to the new county residents that we will take your property taxes on your expensive homes, but your children will have to attend a school that has limited capabilities. And oh, by the way, the school will be at its maximum student capacity from opening day.

What impact will the elimination of the above listed features have on the school's operation-

The lack of kitchen equipment means all meals will have to be prepared at some other location. These meals will be transported to the school and handed out to the students. The students and the teachers will eat together every day, possibly in their classrooms.

A facility without a gymnasium provides limited areas for healthy physical activities that all students need. Also, on bad weather days it means no activities since there would not be anywhere to have them.

A facility without a library means the upper grade levels would have no resource materials to do study assignments. They would have to do research at the county library. For the younger children, not having a library hinders the love for books that schools try to foster at a young age.

It should also be pointed out that anything not constructed or funded now will cost more later, thereby making the overall cost for the new school a lot more than 10 percent over the original cost proposal.

The supervisors and the School Board need to look at the picture they are painting for all the additional teachers needed here. They're saying, "Come to Culpeper County where you can start out at a lower salary than some of our surrounding counties and work in a facility that requires you to overcome its shortfalls while teaching a full classroom."