The Richmond School Board once again is challenging the mayor and City Council to find money to start replacing or renovating the decrepit public school buildings a majority of students attend.

For at least the fifth time since 2002, the board has approved a wish list to start the process, with replacement of George Wythe High School, Elkhardt-Thompson Middle School and Greene and George Mason elementary schools topping a proposed 20-year construction program that is projected to cost $800 million — or about $3,500 per city resident.

That does not include interest on the borrowing, which would add at least $300 million to the total cost.

Rejecting delay and further public input, a divided board voted 5-3 to send its latest appeal for money to modernize its buildings to the elected officials who control the use of tax dollars, Mayor Levar M. Stoney and Richmond City Council.

The vote came on the motion of board member Dr. Patrick Sapini to endorse the first phase of the board’s overall plan. It also calls for an initial $224.7 million spread over 2019 to 2023 to enable the first four schools, including George Mason Elementary, to be built.

The initial money also would provide $20 million toward building a new Woodville Elementary that sits about a mile north of George Mason; $5.3 million for a facelift for Francis Elementary in South Side; $3.2 million to complete a renovation of Overby-Sheppard Elementary in North Side; and $1.2 million to start the renovation of Fairfield Elementary in the East End.

“We know our schools are in deplorable condition. We know this is having a negative impact on learning. So it is time for us to take action,” board Chairwoman Dawn Page said after casting the decisive vote. Several board members urged a week’s delay on the vote to allow the public time to weigh in.

Whether the School Board’s plan will stir action is questionable. It is headed to a City Hall that continues to claim the city has almost maxed out its credit card and could not come up with that kind of money.

At a recent City Council committee meeting, 5th District Councilman Parker C. Agelasto said he has been advised that the city could only undertake $15 million in new borrowing in the coming year.

That is likely to make it harder for the School Board to sell a plan that calls for spending $85 million on a new George Wythe High that could accommodate 2,000 students; $50 million for a new Elkhardt-Thompson Middle with a 1,500-student capacity; $35 million for a new Greene Elementary to accommodate 1,000 students; and $25 million apiece on the new George Mason Elementary and the new Woodville Elementary that each would handle 650 to 700 students.

The School Board also is facing pushback for failing to hold public hearings before approving its plan.

Mayor Stoney, following the practice of President Trump, tweeted initial criticism about the way the board advanced the proposal.

“We need a plan & the public needs to be part of that plan,” he stated. “Our kids deserve a constructive & collaborative approach to addressing this issue.”

Still, he added that he looked forward “to learning more about the details” when he and the City Council sit down with the School Board on Monday, Dec. 11, at the latest meeting of his Educational Compact.

Mayor Stoney said previously that he would support a first phase of school construction as long as it goes through an Educational Compact review. He also has hinted repeatedly that he might propose higher taxes in the next budget to provide funding, without making any promise to do so.

Just repaying interest and principal for the first phase would require the city to spend $15 million to $17 million a year for 20 years based on current interest rates.

Richmond is now paying about that much to pay off the debt on the four newest schools, including Huguenot High and Martin Luther King Jr. Middle, that were developed during the tenure of Mayor Dwight C. Jones.

Still, despite Mayor Stoney’s insistence that he wants to undertake the first phase the board has proposed, he has conditioned his support on having the School Board “right-size” the school system, which would include a plan to close schools that have low enrollments creating hundreds of vacant seats.

However, the board is not proposing any school closings as part of the first phase, which seeks mostly to address overcrowding in South Side largely because of an influx of Latino students.

“It should be noted that RPS has closed 17 school buildings since 2005, and this was a major factor in the board’s decision not to close or consolidate schools at this time,” Ms. Page and interim schools Superintendent Thomas E. “Tommy” Kranz wrote in a letter to Mayor Stoney that accompanied the plan.

Others, including Paul Goldman, who led the successful effort to put a school modernization referendum on the Nov. 7 ballot that won overwhelming voter support for school modernization, regard the School Board’s proposal as inadequate.

“The board’s half-baked, last-minute proposal is a retreat from reality,” Mr. Goldman wrote in a blistering Facebook post. “The referendum showed what the board missed: Richmonders are fed up with being depicted as uncaring and unwilling to fix an intolerable situation of sending kids to obsolete, decrepit, unhealthy monuments to segregation.

“Eighty-five percent of the voters declared with their ballots, ‘We are ready to support a fully-funded, fiscally responsible, system-wide school facility modernization plan that ensures every child in our town goes to a clean, safe, modern facility that no longer impedes learning and teaching.’

“Instead, the board votes for a plan that will leave the majority of schoolchildren in RVA in decrepit, disgraceful and dysfunction school buildings for another generation,” he stated. “The School Board blew it.”

New member Kenya J. Gibon, 3rd District; Dr. Sapini, 5th District; Felicia Cosby, 6th District; Cheryl Burke, 7th District; and Ms. Page, 8th District, voted to support the first phase at Monday’s meeting, rather than waiting until Tuesday, Dec. 12, to allow time for constituents to weigh in.

Members Scott Barlow, 2nd District; Jonathan Young, 4th District; and Linda Owen, 9th District, voted against the plan because it did not allow public input. Board member Liz Doerr, 1st District, left before the vote.

Mr. Young is concerned the plan does not include the closure of any buildings.

He wants the board to rescind its votes and go back to the drawing board to come up with a “credible fix to facilities that would also shrink the number of vacant seats.”

“I cannot believe that anyone would pass a plan that includes building an $80 million new George Wythe High when we all know that we have one too many high schools,” Mr. Young stated in an email to the Free Press, calling it “irresponsible” for the board to propose a new high school “before even knowing what high school would be closed.”

Mr. Kranz told the board at a recent meeting that only one school, Henderson Middle, is far below capacity. Designed for 1,000 students, Henderson currently has 450 students, he said.

But he said building a new Elkhardt-Thompson Middle would not justify closing Henderson, the only middle school in North Side. He said any savings would be eaten up by higher transportation costs to shuttle students from North Side to other middle schools and could lead to overcrowding at Albert Hill, Binford and Martin Luther King Jr., where student numbers are far closer to capacity.