At a meeting last Tuesday of the Joint Facilities Committee, a group made up of members of the Buena Vista City Council and School Board, local leaders faced a sobering presentation from architect Graham Boyd of CPL Architecture. The message to the committee: if the city hopes to build a new PreK–7 school, it will need to reckon with costs that are high now and only climbing.
Boyd presented a conceptual layout for a 99,000-squarefoot school to be built adjacent to Parry McCluer High School, featuring two distinct wings for younger and older students. The design would consolidate the city’s three existing schools into one: Kling Elementary, Enderly Heights Elementary, and Parry McCluer Middle School. But it comes with a price tag: $69 million in construction costs if built in 2027. And that’s only if the project gets moving soon.
“We looked at state data going back to 2017,” Boyd told the committee. “Back then, school construction in Virginia averaged $254 per square foot. In 2024, it’s $514. That’s a 101% increase in just seven years.”
Boyd and CPL projected that if the city waits until 2030, the same building could cost $87 to $99 million — a jump of more than $6 million per year. “Costs aren’t going to reverse,” he said. “Even if they slow, they’re not going back to pre-COVID levels.”
And construction costs aren’t the whole picture. When soft costs like design contracts, inspections, furnishings and inflation are added, the total project cost for even a 2026 start (saving some overall money by acting fast, compared to the 2027 target) could reach at least $60 million.
That estimate includes modest savings if the city pursues a Public-Private Education Facilities and Infrastructure Act (PPEA) procurement — a design-build model that offers a guaranteed maximum cost in exchange for a rigid, no-change-orders structure.
Superintendent Tony Francis has prior experience with building a school using PPEA, and testified of the benefits and downsides to that option. “You have to know what you want upfront,” Francis said. “It locks in predictability, but you lose flexibility.”
Boyd also noted that about $5 million could be shaved off the total by trimming 10,000 square feet, and that shared use of adjacent high school resources could further reduce operational costs. Still, the projected savings do little to dent the core problem: a finding from earlier in the year that showed that even if citizens were to vote to raise taxes and fund the school, the city doesn’t have the borrowing capacity to pay for an entire project.
School officials agreed that they would need a more exact picture of the amount they have to work with in planning next steps for school facilities.
“What we don’t have,” Francis said, “is a number from the city. Something we can plan around. We can’t build anything without knowing how much we can actually afford.”
That financial ambiguity has created mounting frustration among committee members.
“We’re a small city,” said Council member Michelle Poluikis. “It just seems impossible.”
Poluikis also questioned whether the school division had been willing to make enough sacrifices in its budget, a comment that prompted a sharp response from Francis. “The city already funds us at the bare minimum required by the state,” he said. “There’s not much further we can cut.”
School Board member Roy Mohler also pushed back, noting that budget reductions have become routine. “Everyone keeps tightening their belts,” he said. “But the real issue is we don’t have a plan. We don’t even have a number to aim at.”
Still, Mohler made clear the cost of inaction may be higher than the cost of construction.
“If we neglect the school system,” he warned, “we will not be a city anymore.”
Mohler pointed to Glasgow, once planned as a regional hub, which has struggled with damage from floods and economic growth in recent decades and no longer has any schools.
“Go drive through Glasgow now,” he said. “That’s what could happen when you lose your schools. There’s not much there.”
Without a plan to replace its aging and deteriorating buildings — including a middle school over a century old — Buena Vista faces the potential of long-term decline. Mohler said the city could be forced to consolidate with Rockbridge County Schools, and eventually to give up its status as an independent city.
“We’ll get gobbled up by the county,” he said. “We’ll be gone.”
Despite rising tensions, committee members emphasized their shared commitment to doing what’s best for students.
“We all care,” Mohler said. “But caring isn’t a plan.”
