The Farmville herald. (Farmville, Va.) 1957-current, 1960-04-29

has the Treasurer honored our.
checks drawn on this fund. We
have now used this money to meet
some OF the obligations men
toned above.
Incidentally. We suspect thai
some Of the recent criticism Of
the local counsel for the School
Board was based on mis- repre-
sentation Of us during the Legis-
lature to bring about this legis-
lative amendment. In this he
was acting at our direction and
performing assigned duties as
our employed counsel. From
the $4.161 mentioned above, the
Superintendent has received the
School Boards part of his salary
through January 1860. the Clerk
Of the School Board has been
paid rough January 1860,
Board members have been paid
through December 1859 and all
but a small balance of insur-
ance premiums have now been
paid. Even so, all insurance will
expire on or before November |.
1860.
The Move to Declare the
Farmville High School Property
surplus
1t will be recalled that repre-
Sentatives of the Prince Edward
School Foundation appeared be-
fore the School Board at it's
meeting on January II, 1860, re-
questing us to declare the Farm
vile High School property sur
plus and to make it available
fer sale. These representatives
declined. however. to make fur
Their commitments for the Foun-
dalton at that time. We deferred
action until the following week,
January 18Th. Wlen large num-
Der of citizens appeared at a
meeting Of The Board to discuss
the pros and cons of this re-
quest. Following this open dis
cussion. the Beard passed the
following resolution:
AFTER having thoroughly
considered this request. on
motion made and unani-
mously adopted, the follow
ing resolution was passed:
"At this time, the School
Board does rot feel that it
should take the sole response
bility Of selling the main
white high hool in the
County This school belongs
to the people OF Prince Ed
ward County, and State law
provides a procedure where
by the voters may require
and approve such a sale. We
believe this statute should be
followed here"
The next day. the Foundation
officials announced that they
were not interested in purcf1aS-
ing the Farmville High School
property.
1t should be very clear that
means exist whereby the people
Of the County can decide whether
the property should or should not
be declared surplus. We felt, and
continue to feel, that SO grave a
matter should not be decided by
six people when the State law
provides readily disable method
of getting an expression of the
will of all the people. Tha
should be done, as the law con
templates, through a secret bal
lot referendum. We do not be
lieve that the people should b.
bypassed.
Furthermore, there is a yer,
practical side to this problem
Our counsel advise us that, il
their opinion. the sale of schoo
building for an inadequate pric,
to an organization that intends
to continue to use the buildinl
as a school raises grave lega
problems Action to enjoin sucl
a sale would be very likely. l
would, in the opinion of ou
counsel, be much easier to de
fend a sale that resulted from
a referendum approving the sale
We doubt whether it is in tn,
best interest of the County for i
to be embroiled at this time il
: further difficult litigation; we be
lieve that the County should b.
put in the best position possible
to defend further litigation. Salt
after referendum is much t.
be preferred from this point O
view.
Many Questions Unanswered
Our unwillingness to act on the
sale of the Farmville High
School property without a vote
of the people was prompted by
our concern with several ques
tons which we feel the people
must realistically face. Here are
some of these. questions that oc
cur to us as important:
1. If the property were to be
declared surplus and offered TO,
sale, what guarantee can we
have that it will be bought by
an individual or a group who
would be certain to use it for
the educational purpose for
which the citizens of the County
originally provided it?
9 Should huildin0c ho 10