We have one word for the proposal to build a new headquarters building for the Washington County Board of Education: No!
Not until school officials have renovated abominably designed schools like Fountain Rock Elementary, an "open school" where students eat lunch at their desks because there is no cafeteria. Not until every school that is overcrowded gets the additional classrooms it needs. Then and only then should the system consider spending a great deal of money on new administrative offices.
In other nearby counties - Berkeley and Jefferson counties in West Virginia - school officials use old school buildings for their headquarters. That might be an option in Washington County, if past boards had had the foresight to retain title to facilities like the Washington Street school, with its spacious rooms and easy access to U.S. 40 and Interstate 81.
Unfortunately, the school was sold, along with a flock of others, which would seem to leave renovation or new construction the only option. Our vote is for renovation, even though Superintendent Herman Bartlett Jr. said that it would be throwing good money after bad.