A school board request for $4.7 million more county funding for new computers and building renovations appears unlikely to win approval from a Howard County Council beset by recession-driven cuts and employee furloughs.
"I don't know where we'd find it," said council chairwoman Mary Kay Sigaty, a West Columbia Democrat, after a two-hour work session on the budget Friday in the county's temporary office quarters in Columbia.
"Personally, I think they need to look at their own projects," commented Courtney Watson, an Ellicott City Democrat. No council member championed the request.
The money is needed for what school superintendent Sydney L. Cousin called "critical" systemic improvements to buildings, and to lease new computers to replace 6,736 aging machines and keep up with a replacement schedule.
Michael Borkoski, the school system's technology officer, said 900 computers on the replacement list are more than seven years old and require expensive repairs, and others are more than four years old.
Deferring maintenance year after year results in more expensive and sometimes emergency repairs, Cousin said, like the unexpected $5 million replacement of a deteriorating brick wall system at Clarksville Middle School later this year.
County Executive Ken Ulman reduced the school board's capital budget request by $26.2 million, Cousin said, and only provided enough renovation money for projects already under way.
"You make a compelling case, as you always do," Watson said. But Fulton Republican Greg Fox and other members asked if there might be funds left over from other school projects, like the $2.5 million that school officials expect to divert from the renovation of Mount Hebron High School, and the $1.5 million from all-day kindergarten room construction. Those funds are already planned for other uses, Cousin said.
Watson pointed out there is very little flexibility in the capital budget because almost all the money is for projects already under way.
Sigaty asked why school officials don't shift money set aside for planning new projects that have now been pushed back due to the recession, but school officials said they're reluctant to do that since the projects will have to be undertaken eventually.
But Sigaty shot back that the county has done that. "We've delayed roads. We have a lot of assets in this county to care for. We have to balance this," she said.
