The Richmond School Board expressed serious concerns Monday over planned cuts to athletic amenities at the new Huguenot High School, including lights on the baseball and softball fields and tennis courts.
Project officials said they have identified about $2.2 million in "value engineering" reductions to bring costs within the project's construction budget of about $63 million. Overall, $580,000 is saved by eliminating lights on the baseball and softball fields and the tennis courts.
Officials emphasized that no cuts to the academic program were being considered and said that ground electrical infrastructure would be installed to the facilities so that the athletic lights could be added later. However, that provided little comfort to board members.
"I'm really nervous about starting out with this deficit," School Board Chairwoman Kimberly M. Bridges said.
The city's plans for Huguenot High come after budget pressures forced officials to scale back non-critical design features for the new Broad Rock Elementary and Oak Grove Elementary.
Scheduled to open in January 2015, the new Huguenot High will be the city's first new high school in four decades.
John Winter, the city's capital projects manager, said the new Huguenot High will have excellent facilities, including a lighted football stadium and rubberized track.
But School Board Vice Chairwoman Dawn C. Page said athletic programs help raise money for school programs, and she questioned whether the city might end up spending more in the long run if the lighting upgrades come later.
School Board member Kimberly B. Gray said after the meeting that she's not sure what can be done because the school-building program is an initiative of Mayor Dwight C. Jones, not the School Board.
"We don't have any control. We don't have any authority. We don't have any money," she said.
The planned cuts include $568,000 to switch from polished concrete flooring to vinyl tile in parts of the building, as well as $289,000 to reduce parking improvements at nearby Thompson Middle. Other cuts include $150,000 for landscaping and $90,000 to provide a soft rather than hard gym partition.
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