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Fiorentino, board at odds

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By RONNIE BLAIR

rblair@tampatrib.com

Published: October 28, 2009

LAND O' LAKES - Superintendent Heather Fiorentino and the Pasco County School Board remain at odds over plans for a new administration building for the district.

Several board members oppose the project, saying the economic climate makes this the wrong time to consider it.

"There is never a good time, but I can't imagine a worse time than now," Vice Chairman Allen Altman said Tuesday during a board workshop on the district's five-year facilities plan.

The plan covers numerous construction and renovation projects, including three schools opening in 2010: Fivay High and two elementary schools. Among some of the major renovations projects are Pasco High, Pasco Middle and Richey Elementary.

The plan also budgets $10 million in 2009-10 for the administration building and $5 million in 2010-11. Board members, though, have said they don't expect to approve any contracts to start construction on the project.

On Tuesday, Fiorentino reiterated her belief that the building is needed because of crowding in departments such as finance and human resources. Several portable buildings are being used to ease conditions, she said.

Fiorentino and Olga Swinson, the district's chief finance officer, suggested the board tour the departments that would benefit from a new administration building.

Several board members indicated they consider the building off the table for now and raised the possibility of spending the money on other capital-construction needs.

"It seems more appropriate to take some of that money and put it into some of these old school buildings," board member Kathryn Starkey said.

Fiorentino said she thinks that would be a mistake. Only certain funding can be used for projects such as administration buildings, she said. It has taken the district several years to raise about $11 million toward the project, and "I don't know where we'll ever get those dollars again," she said.

The administration building has appeared in work plans before, but board members first raised objections to it at a workshop in July when Fiorentino and Swinson raised the possibility of using federal stimulus dollars to pay for the building.

The district later learned the stimulus money could not be used for that purpose.

District officials say planning for the administration building began in 1998.

Reporter Ronnie Blair can be reached at (813) 259-7065.

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