Buckingham County: The Battle of the Boards

In my travels across the Commonwealth to visit friends and family, now and again I find myself crossing the beautiful James River at Scottsville and traveling south through the woods on the Constitution Route (U.S. Route 20) to points beyond.

This is Buckingham County, a very large and sparsely populated rural county that probably looks today a lot like it did 20 years ago, or 50 years ago. The main community within the county is the little railroad Town of Dillwyn. Dillwyn is a quaint little village with little shops and an old train station that looks like a scene from that old favorite TV series “The Walton’s.”

But time has not passed by Buckingham County nor have the problems and challenges that always confront a changing society.

In the recent months, there has been a fair amount printers ink spilt in The Farmville Herald on what appears to be a power struggle between the Buckingham County Board of Supervisors and the Buckingham County School Board over how to spend limited financial resources for public education. Both Boards are comprised of members elected by the same voters.

This is an interesting situation. The Board of Supervisors has control of the county budget and can, within certain state guidelines, control what funds are spent for education. But the School Board was elected to broadly oversee the entire county school division and how it meets the various educational mandates.

So who is in charge of education in Buckingham County? What happens if the Board of Supervisors and the School Board don’t agree on what to do? Answers to these questions are still elusive.

Presently it seems that the control of the purse strings by the Board of Supervisors may be trumping the School Board’s more direct responsibility to guide the county’s public education programs. To borrow the words used by one citizen, critically needed improvements to school facilities are being “held hostage” by the Board of Supervisors.

Apparently, things have gotten so contentious between the Buckingham County Board of Supervisors and the Buckingham County School Board that the School Board recently began exploring the possibility of hiring a professional mediator to help resolve differences between the two Boards. (see linked article above)

However, the idea of bringing in a mediator has been not been enthusiastically embraced by the Board of Supervisors- or at least some members. For example, Supervisor John Kitchen recently made it very clear that he thinks a mediator would be a waste of money and that the School Board needs to just “…do what they have been asked to do…”

Asked? Do they really have a choice?

It is important for all elected officials to remember that when the voters elect them to office, they are elected to do a job, to find answers, to find solutions and to serve the public interests. Normally, those solutions are worked out through discussion, listening to different perspectives and compromise. Mmmm...compromise... Why is this idea so difficult to understand?

While I do not want to take sides on this struggle to find common ground, I do know that public education is just too important to be “held hostage” or worse, to be sacrificed to the egos of a few elected officials who may have forgotten what they were elected to do.

Therefore, I would urge the elected officials of Buckingham County to stop taking unilateral actions. Instead, start talking. Start listening. Find common ground. Get a mediator if you have to. If a few bucks invested in a mediator allows the County to move beyond this current impasse, it will be money well spent.

Both Boards are elected by the same voters and serve the same public interests. Public education is important. So, wouldn’t it be nice if the two Boards could find a way to work together.

Readers from Buckingham County (if indeed there are any), tell me what you think....