‘THEY DID A 180° ON US’
Some members of the Nottoway School Board are voicing strong words of disapproval for the Board of Supervisors, which recently rejected the division’s request to sell the former Burkeville Elementary School building — less than a month after an apparent agreement had been reached between the two boards.
At a School Board work session on Oct. 22nd, District Four rep Charles Wilson accused Supervisors of a “flipflop… how will we trust them…?”
“Excellent point,” agreed member Bill Outlaw.
“What’s the point of talking to them,” Wilson continued, “if they’re going to do what they want anyway?”
Outlaw again agreed, “We can’t feel confident in any assurances, at this point, that we might be given.”
Board Chairman Sonny Abbott said the Board is standing firm on its declaration to the County that all parties — including the Voter Registrar’s Office — must vacate the school building on or before Jan. 15, 2026.
Abbott didn’t name names but said “there is a Board member who thinks that the County owns the building. That is in error, the School Division owns Burkeville Elementary and every square inch of that property.”
District Three rep Damien Rowe said he, too, was taken aback by Supervisors’ 5-0 rejection on Oct. 16th. “We talked, we came to some sort of agreement, and then at their meeting, they did a one-eighty on us.”
Chairman Abbott agreed, saying the two boards had agreed that the School Board could take all sale proceeds and use them for school capital improvement projects. “The sale was to prevent a tax increase… it CHANGED COMPLETELY when it went before the entire five Board members (Supervisors).”
District Five rep Michele Duncan, who participated remotely by speaker phone, said the best course of action is to surplus the building to the County and let the County take on utility and maintenance costs to the tune of about $70,000 to $80,000 per year. She said simply shutting down the building benefits no one and that it could begin to deteriorate. “We’ve agreed that we’re not in the real estate business or the rental business, that’s not our ‘jam’… Let them take care of managing it, let them take care of everything.” Member Duncan said that she, too, was “blindsided” by Supervisors’ vote on October 16th.
Rowe said he’s not ready to surplus the building until another work session with Supervisors can be held.
Division Supt. Dr. Marcia Martin was asked to contact the County about another joint meeting, but Abbott this week told the Courier-Record that Supervisors won’t meet with them until after their next regular meeting, set for November 20th.
Outlaw said that if the two boards are able to hold “another sit down, one of the conditions might be that we get their intentions IN WRITING EXACTLY, before we proceed any further.”
Wilson sighed, “I’m sorry, I just have no confidence in them…I’m straight to the point and I don’t like all this politick- ing.”
Outlaw recalled that Supervisors several months ago discussed the possibility of reducing their local contribution to the division. “They wanted to cut what they gave us, and they are one of the very few counties in Virginia that do not contribute more than the LCI (Local Composite Index) requires… We’re at the mercy of others for our funding and, so far, I’ve not been impressed with how they’ve come through.”
“We need a revenue stream badly,” said Rowe, prompting Outlaw to respond, “Amen.”
In addition to citizen Page, about a dozen other residents lined the walls of the School Board conference room on Oct. 22nd, most holding signs urging the School Board to surplus the building. Among them was the Mayor of Burkeville, Gerald Ingram, whoi took turns holding different signs, one of which read, “Keep Politics Out of Schools.”
Member Rowe declared, “We need MONEY. WE NEED MONEY. THat was my only reason for the vote I cast (5-0 on Oct. 13th to seek permission to sell the building).”
Rowe added, “Our buildings are aging badly, and it shows.” And Rowe said that regardless of student enrollment numbers, buildings must be safe, secure, and “cool and warm.”
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