PICKENS COUNTY – The estimated cost of the school facilities program for the county now stands at $365 million, and as far as the new chairman of the school board is concerned, that figure will not increase.

According to Jim Shelton, who represents the Dacusville area, there is another $40 million the school district could raise through bonds for the building project, but “it’s something I won’t allow,” he said.

That money would be available for technology portions of the project, but not brick and mortar, Shelton said.

The funds could be raised through the installment purchase plan if the board approved the move in three votes, but the chairman told the Sentinel he would not put the matter on the agenda for discussion.

Shelton said the additional funds would not raise taxes but would extend the time the district would have to pay on the project.

He said he considered a recent board vote approving the superintendent’s plan to rein the project in at $365 million to be a cap on the project.

Board member Alex Saitta, who represents the Pickens area, said that while such a move would not raise the tax rate, it would not let it decrease over the time period the bonds will be paid back.

He also opposed the idea.

“The district administration and board has been getting its financial advice from the bond attorney and the bond analyst,” he said. “They get paid each time the school district borrows money. Naturally, their typical solution is to borrow more money.”

Saitta said that the board majority said it needed $315 million when the project was approved in November 2006.

“They now have $365 milllion,” he said. “If they borrow another $40 million, it will prove two things – one, they are completely inept when it comes to financial management. Two, we need to hire financial advisors who will put aside their interests and think about what is best for the students, parents and taxpayers in this county.”

The building project still includes athletic facilities at this point, but Shelton said if hard decisions had to be made a year from now to keep cost in lines, those facilities would be the first place he’d look.

The four new football stadiums included in the project will cost an estimated $2.5 million apiece, which include stadium seating, grading, press boxes, irrigation, lighting, scoreboards and all other necessities

Shelton said that in looking at the overall cost of the project, cutting out the stadiums would lead to a great savings overall and that the current stadiums needed to be upgraded, which would incur costs as well.

And the stadium at Daniel High School will be torn down to make room for a new school.

“If we don’t put them in now, we won’t ever put them in,” he said. “But a year from now if the unforeseen happens and we have to make a sacrifice to avoid extra costs, then the athletic facilities is the first place I’d look.

“I want to ensure that we deliver what the public wants, but it has to be with a cap,” Shelton said.